THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  GERMANIC  STUDIES 
Vol.   I.     No.   III. 


THE    INFLUENCE 


OF 


OLD    NORSE   LITERATURE 


UPON 


ENGLISH   LITERATURE 


BY 


CONRAD    HJALMAR   NORDBY 


llctn  i)orh 

THE   COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

The  Macmillan  Company,  Agents 

66  ?'ifth  avenue 

1901 


PRESS   OF 

TKE    NEW   EHA   PRINTING   COMPANY, 

LANCASTER,    PA. 


Deyr  fe 

deyja  fraandr, 

deyr  sialfr  it  sania  ; 

en  orSstirr 

deyr  aldrigi 

hveim  er  ser  g6(San  getr. 

Hcivamdl^  7  ^ . 

Cattle  die, 

kindred  die, 

we  onrs elves  also  die; 

but  the  fair  fame 

never  dies 

of  him  who  has  earned  it. 

Thorpe's  Edda. 


Ill 


PREFATORY   NOTE. 

The  present  pubiicatiou  is  the  only  literary  work  left  by  its 
author.  Unfortunately  it  lacks  a  few  pages  which,  as  his  manu- 
script shows,  he  intended  to  add,  and  it  also  failed  to  receive  his 
final  revision.  His  friends  have  nevertheless  deemed  it  expedi- 
ent to  publish  the  result  of  his  studies  conducted  with  so  much 
ardor,  in  order  that  some  memorial  of  his  life  and  work  should 
remain  for  the  wider  public.  To  those  acquainted  with  him.  no 
written  \\  ords  can  represent  the  charm  of  his  personalitv  or  give 
anything  approaching  an  adequate  impression  of  his  abilitv  and 
strength  of  character. 

Conrad  Hjalmar  Nordby  was  born  September  20,  1S67,  at 
Christiania,  Norway.  At  the  age  of  four  he  was  brought  to 
New  York,  where  he  was  educated  in  the  public  schools.  He 
was  graduated  from  the  College  of  the  Cit}-  of  New  York  in 
18S6.  From  December  of  that  year  to  June,  1S93.  ^^^  taught  in 
Grammar  School  No.  55,  and  in  September,  1S93,  ^""^  "^'^^^  called 
to  his  Alma  Mater  as  Tutor  in  English.  He  was  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  Instructor  in  1S97,  a  position  which  he  held  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  He  died  in  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  October  28, 
1900.  In  October,  1S94,  ^^^  began  his  studies  in  the  School  of 
Philosophy  of  Columbia  University,  taking  courses  in  Philosophy 
and  Education  under  Professor  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  and  in 
Germanic  Literatures  and  Germanic  Philologv  under  Profes- 
sors Boyesen,  William  H.  Carpenter  and  Calvin  Thomas.  It 
was  under  the  guidance  of  Professor  Carpenter  that  the  present 
v^'ork  was  conceived  and  executed. 

Such  a  brief  outline  of  Mr.  Nordby's  career  can,  however, 
give  but  an  imperfect  view  of  his  activities,  while  it  gives  none 
at  all  of  his  influence.  He  was  a  teacher  who  impressed  his  per- 
sonality, not  only  upon  his  students,  but  upon  all  who  knew  liim. 
In  his  character  were  united  force  and  refinement,  firmness  and 
geniality.      In  his  earnest  work  with  his  pupils,  in  his  lectiux'S  to 


VI 

the  teachers  of  the  New  York  Public  Schools  and  to  other  audi- 
ences, in  his  personal  influence  upon  all  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact,  he  spread  the  taste  for  beauty,  both  of  poetry  and  of  life. 
When  his  body  was  carried  to  the  grave,  the  grief  was  not  con- 
fined to  a  few  intimate  friends ;  all  who  had  known  him  felt  that 
something  noble  and  beautiful  had  vanished  from  their  lives. 

In  this  regard  his  career  was,  indeed,  rich  in  achievement,  but 
when  we  consider  what,  with  his  large  equipment,  he  might 
have  done  in  the  world  of  scholarship,  the  promise,  so  untimely 
blighted,  seems  even  richer.  From  early  youth  he  had  been  a 
true  lover  of  books.  To  him  they  were  not  dead  things ;  they 
palpitated  with  the  life  blood  of  master  spirits.  The  enthusiasm 
for  William  Morris  displayed  in  the  present  essay  is  typical  of 
his  feeling  for  all  that  he  considei"ed  best  in  literature.  Such  an 
enthusiasm,  communicated  to  those  about  him,  rendered  him  a 
\ital  force  in  every  compan}^  where  works  of  creative  genius 
could  be  a  theme  of  conversation. 

A  love  of  nature  and  of  art  accompanied  and  reinforced  this 
love  of  literature ;  and  all  combined  to  produce  the  effect  of 
wholesome  purity  and  elevation  which  continually  emanated 
from  him.  His  influence,  in  fact,  was  largely  of  that  pervasive 
sort  which  depends,  not  on  anv  special  word  uttered,  and  above 
all,  not  on  any  preachment,  but  upon  the  entire  character  and 
life  of  the  man.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  his  modesty  never 
concealed  his  strength.  He  shrunk  above  all  things  from  push- 
ing himself  forward  and  demanding  public  notice,  and  yet  few 
ever  met  him  without  feeling  the  force  of  character  that  lay  be- 
hind his  gentle  and  almost  retiring  demeanor.  It  w'as  easy  to 
recognize  that  here  was  a  man,  self-centered  and  whole. 

In  a  discourse  pronounced  at  a  memorial  meeting,  the  Rev. 
John  Coleman  Adams  justly  said  :  "  If  I  wished  to  set  before  my 
boy  a  type  of  what  is  best  and  most  lovable  in  the  American 
youth,  I  think  I  could  find  no  more  admirable  character  than  that 
of  Conrad  Hjalmar  Nordby.  A  young  man  of  the  people,  with 
all  their  unexhausted  force,  vitality  and  enthusiasm;  a  man  of 
simple  aims  and  honest  ways ;  as  chivalrous  and  high-minded  as 
any  knight  of  old ;  as  pure  in  life  as  a  woman ;  at  once  gentle 
and  brave,  strong  and  sweet,  just  and  loving;  upright,  but  no 
Pharisee  ;    earnest,  but  never  sanctimonious  ;    who  took  his  work 


Vll 

as  a  pleasure,  and  his  pleasure  as  an  innocent  joy  ;  a  friend  to  l)e 
coveted ;  a  disciple  such  as  the  Saviour  must  have  loved ;  a  true 
son  of  God,  who  dwelt  in  the  Father's  house.  Of  such  youth 
our  land  niav  well  be  proud  ;  and  no  man  need  speak  despair- 
ingly of  a  nation  whose  life  and  institutions  can  ripen  such  a 
fruit."  L.   F.   M. 

College  of  tue  City  of  New  York. 
May  15,  1 90 1. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

It  should  not  be  hard  for  the  general  reader  to  understand  that 
the  influence  which  is  the  theme  of  this  dissertation  is  real  and 
explicable.  If  he  will  but  call  the  roll  of  his  favorite  heroes,  he 
will  find  Sigurd  there.  In  his  gallery  of  wondrous  women, 
he  certainly  cherishes  Brynhild.  These  poetic  creations  belong 
to  the  English-speaking  race,  because  they  belong  to  the  world. 
And  if  one  will  but  recall  the  close  kinship  of  the  Icelandic  and 
the  Anglo-Saxon  languages,  he  will  not  find  it  strange  that  the 
spirit  of  the  old  Norse  sagas  lives  again  in  our  English  song  and 
story. 

The  survey  that  this  essay  takes  begins  with  Thomas  Gray 
(1716-1771),  and  comes  down  to  the  present  day.  It  finds  the 
fullest  measure  of  the  old  Norse  poetic  spirit  in  William  Morris 
(  1S34-1S96),  and  an  increasing  interest  and  delight  in  it  as  we 
come  toward  our  own  time.  The  enterprise  of  learned  societies 
and  enlightened  book  publishers  has  spread  a  knowledge  of  Ice- 
landic literature  among  the  reading  classes  of  the  present  day  ; 
but  the  taste  for  it  is  not  to  be  accoimted  for  in  the  same  way. 
That  is  of  nobler  birth  than  of  erudition  or  commercial  pride. 
Is  it  not  another  expression  of  that  changed  feeling  for  the  things 
that  pertain  to  the  common  people,  which  distinguishes  our  cen- 
tury from  the  last?  The  historian  no  longer  limits  his  study  to  S*^ 
camp  and  court ;  the  poet  deigns  to  leave  the  drawing-room  and 
library  for  humbler  scenes.  Folk-lore  is  now  dignified  into  a 
science.  The  touch  of  nature  has  made  the  whole  world  kin, 
and  our  highly  civilized  century  is  moved  by  the  records  of  the 
passions  of  the  earlier  society. 

This  change  in  taste  was  long  in  coming,  and  the  emotional    ■< 
phase  of  it  has  preceded  the  intellectual.     It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  Gray  and  Morris  both  failed  to  carry  their  public  with  them 
all  the  way.     Gray,  the  most  cultured  man  of  his  time,  produced 
art  forms  totally  different  from  those  in  vogue,  and  Walpole '  said 

'Quoted  in  Gray,  by  E.  W.  Gosse,  English  Men  of  Letters,  p.  163. 

ix 


of  these  forms  :  "  Gray  has  added  to  his  poems  three  ancient 
odes  from  Norway  and  Wales  .  .  .  they  are  not  interesting, 
and  do  not,  like  his  other  poems,  touch  any  passion.  .  .  .  Who 
can  care  through  what  horrors  a  Runic  savage  arrived  at  all  the 
joys  and  glories  they  could  conceive — the  supreme  felicity  of 
boozing  ale  out  of  the  skull  of  an  enemy  in  Odin's  Hall?" 

Morris,  the  most  versatile  man  of  his  time,  found  plenty  of 
praise  for  his  art  work,  until  he  preached  social  reform  to 
Englishmen.  Thereafter  the  art  of  William  Morris  was  not  so 
highly  esteemed,  and  the  best  poet  in  England  failed  to  attain 
the  laurel  on  the  death  of  Tennyson. 

Of  this  change  of  taste  more  wnll  be  said  as  this  essay  is  de- 
veloped. These  introductory  words  must  not  be  left,  however, 
without  an  explanation  of  the  word  "Influence,"  as  it  is  used  in 
the  subject-title.  This  paper  will  not  undertake  to  prove  that 
the  course  of  Engrlish  literature  was  diverted  into  new  channels 
by  the  introduction  of  Old  Norse  elements,  or  that  its  nature  was 
materially  changed  thereby.  We  find  an  expi'ession  and  a  justifi- 
cation of  our  present  purpose  in  Richard  Price's  Preface  to  the 
1824  edition  of  Warton's  "  History  of  English  Poetry"  (p.  15)  : 
"  It  was  of  importance  to  notice  the  successive  acquisitions,  in 
the  shape  of  translation  or  imitation,  from  the  more  polished  pro- 
ductions of  Greece  and  Rome ;  and  to  mark  the  dawn  of  that 
tera,  which,  by  directing  the  human  mind  to  the  study  of  clas- 
sical antiquity,  was  to  give  a  new  impetus  to  science  and  litera- 
ture, and  by  the  changes  it  introduced  to  effect  a  total  revolution 
in  the  laws  which  had  previously  governed  them."  Were  War- 
ton  writing  his  historv  to-dav,  he  would  have  to  account  for  later 
eras  as  well  as  for  the  Elizabethan,  and  the  method  would  be  the 
same.  How  far  the  Old  Norse  literature  has  helped  to  form 
these  later  eras  it  is  not  easy  to  say,  but  the  contributions  may  be 
counted  up,  and  their  literary  value  noted.  These  are  the  com- 
mission of  the  present  essay.  When  the  record  is  finished,  we 
shall  be  in  possession  of  information  that  mav  account  for  cer- 
tain considerable  writers  of  our  day,  and  certain  tendencies  of 
thought. 


CONTENTS. 

PAOE 

Prefatory  Note v 

Introductory ix 

I.  The  Body  of  Old  Norse  Literature i 

II.  Through  the  Medium  of  Latin 3 

Thomas  Gray 3 

The  Sources  of  Gray's  Knowledge 5 

Sir  William  Temple S 

George  Hickes lo 

Thomas  Percy 11 

Thomas  Warton 1 4 

Drake  and  Mathias 16 

Cottle  and  Herbert iS 

Walter  Scott 20 

III.  From  the  Sources  Themselves  23 

Richard  Cleasby 24 

Thomas  Carlyle 24 

Samuel  Laing 26 

Longfellow  and  Lowell 2S 

Matthew  Arnold 30 

George  Webbe  Dasent 32 

Charles  Kingsley 33 

Edmund  Gosse  35 

IV.  By  the  Hand  of  the  Master 37 

William  Morris'  works 37 

"             "       I 38 

"       2 39 

:> 4/ 

"    4 • 49 

'•       5 68 

"       6 69 

"       7 70 

"      8 70 

V.   In  the  Latter  Days 74 

Echoes  of  Iceland  in  Later  Poets 74 

Recent  Translations 76 


XI 


I. 

THE  BODY  OF  OLD  NORSE  LITERATURE. 

First,  let  us  understaml  ^\  hat  the  Old  Norse  literature  was  that 
has  been  sending  out  this  constantly  increasing  influence  into  the 
world  of  poetry. 

It  was  in  the  last  four  decades  of  the  ninth  century  of  our  era 
that  Norsemen  began  to  leave  their  own  country  and  set  up  new 
homes  in  Iceland.  The  sixty  years  ending  with  930  A.D.  were 
devoted  to  taking  up  the  land,  and  the  hundred  years  that  ensued 
after  that  date  were  devoted  to  quarreling  about  that  land.  These  '^. 
quarrels  were  the  origin  of  the  Icelandic  family  sagas.  The  year 
1000  brought  Christianity  to  the  island,  and  the  period  from  1030 
to  1 1 30  were  years  of  peace  in  which  stories  of  the  former  time 
passed  from  mouth  to  mouth.  The  next  century  saw  these 
stories  take  written  form,  and  the  jDeriod  from  1220  to  1260  was 
the  golden  age  of  this  literature.  In  1264,  Iceland  passed  under 
the  rule  of  Norway,  and  a  decline  of  literature  began,  extending 
until  1400,  the  end  of  literary  production  in  Iceland.  In  the 
main,  the  authors  of  Iceland  are  unknown.^ 

There  are  several  well-marked  periods,  therefore,  in  Icelandic 
literary  production.  The  earliest  was  devoted  to  poetry,  Ice- 
landic being  no  different  from  most  other  languages  in  the  pre- 
cedence of  that  form.  Before  the  settlement  of  Iceland,  the 
Norse  lands'Xvere  acquainted  with  songs  about  gods  and  cham- 
pions, written  in  a  simple  verse  form.  .The  first  settlers  wrote 
down  some  of  these,  and  forgot  others.  In  the  Codex  Regius^ 
preserved  in  the  Royal  Library  in  Copenhagen,  we  have  a  col- 
lection of  these  songs.  This  material  was  published  in  the 
seventeeth  century  as  the  SiviinoiJar  Bdda,  and  came  to  be  ^ 
known  as  the  Elder  or  Poetic  Edda.  Both  titles  are  misnomers, 
for  Stemund  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  making  of  the  book,  and 
Edda  is  a  name  belonging  to  a  book  of  later  date  and  different 
purpose. 

^B.  Hoff.  Hovedpunkter  af  den  Oldislandske  litteratur-historie. 
K^benhavn.      1873. 

1 


1/ 


This  work — not  a  product  of  the  soil  as  folk-songs  are — is  the 

-V-  fountain  head  of  Old  Norse  mythology,  and  of  Old  Norse  heroic 

legends.       Voluspci  and  Havamal  are  in  this  collection,  and  other 

songs  that  tell  of  Odin  and  Baldur  and  Loki.     The  Helgi  poems 

and  the  Volsung  poems  in  their  earliest  forms  are  also  here. 

A  second  class  of  poetry  in  this  ancient  literature  is  that  called 
"  Skaldic."  Some  of  this  deals  with  mythical  material,  and 
some  with  historical  material.  A  few  of  the  skalds  are  known 
to  us  by  name,  because  their  lives  were  written  down  in  later 
sagas.  Egill  Skallagrimsson,  known  to  all  readers  of  English 
and  Scotch  antiquities,  Eyvind  Skaldaspillir  and  Sigvat  are  of 
this  group. 

Poetic  material  that  is  very  rich  is  found  in  Snorri  Sturluson's 
work  on  Old  Norse  poetics,  entitled  The  Edda^  and  often  re- 
ferred to  as  the  Totutger  or  Prose  Edda. 

More  valuable  than  the  poetry  is  the  prose  of  this  literature, 
especiallv  the  Sagas.  The  saga  is  a  prose  epic,  characteristic  of 
the  Norse  countries.  It  records  the  life  of  a  hero,  told  according 
to  fixed  rules.  As  we  have  said,  the  sagas  were  based  upon 
careers  run  in  Iceland's  stormy  time.  They  are  both  mythical 
and  historical.  In  the  mythical  group  are,  among  others,  the 
Volsimga  Saga.,  the  Hervarar  Saga,  Frv^thjofs  Saga  and 
Ragnar  Lo'^broks  Saga.  In  the  historical  group,  the  flowering 
time  of  which  was  1 200-1270,  we  find,  for  example,  Egils  Saga, 
Eyrbyggja  Saga,  Laxdcela  Saga,  Grettis  Saga,  Njcils  Saga. 
A  branch  of  the  historic  sagas  is  the  Kings'  Sagas,  in  which  we 
find  Heitnskringia,  the  Saga  of  Olaf  Tryggvason,  the  Flatey 
Book,  and  others. 

This  sketch   does   not   pretend  to   indicate  the  quantity  of  Old 

Norse  literature.     An  idea  of  that  is  obtained  bv  considering  the 

^^fact  that  eleven  columns  of  the  ninth  edition  of  the  Encyclopcedia 

Britannica  are  devoted  to  recording  the  works  of  that  body  of 


writmgs. 


II. 

THROUGH    THE    MEDIUM    OF    LATIN. 

Thomas  Grav  (1716-1771). 

In  the  eighteenth  century.  Old  Norse  literature  was  the  lore  of 
antiquarians.  That  it  is  not  so  to-day  among  English  readers  is 
due  to  a  line  of  writers,  first  of  whom  was  Thomas  Gray.  In 
the  thin  volume  of  his  poetry,  two  pieces  bear  the  sub-title : 
"An  Ode.  From  the  Norse  Tongue."  These  are  "  The  Fatal 
Sisters,"  and  "The  Descent  of  Odin,"  both  written  in  1761, 
though  not  published  until  176S.  These  poems  are  among  the 
latest  that  Gray  gave  to  the  world,  and  are  interesting  aside  from 
our  present  purpose  because  they  mark  the  limit  of  Gray's  pro- 
gress toward  Romanticism. 

We  are  not  accustomed  to  think  of  Gray  as  a  Romantic  poet, 
although  we  know  well  that  the  movement  away  from  the  so- 
called  Classicism  was  begun  long  before  he  died.  The  Romantic 
element  in  his  poetry  is  not  obvious  ;  only  the  close  observer  de- 
tects it,  and  then  only  in  a  few  of  the  poems.  The  Pindaric 
odes  exhibit  a  treatment  that  is  Romantic,  and  the  Norse  and 
Welsh  adaptations  are  on  subjects  that  are  Romantic.  But  we 
must  go  to  his  letters  to  find  proof  positive  of  his  sympathy  with 
the  breaking  away  from  Classicism.  Here  are  records  of  a  love 
of  outdoors  that  reveled  in  mountain-climbing  and  the  buffeting 
of  storms.  Here  are  appreciations  of  Shakespeare  and  of  Milton, 
the  like  of  which  were  not  often  proclaimed  in  his  generation. 
Here  is  ecstatic  admiration  of  ballads  and  of  the  Ossian  imita- 
tions, all  so  unfashionable  in  the  literary  culture  of  the  day. 
While  dates  disprove  Lowell's  statement  in  his  essay  on  Gray 
that  "those  anti-classical  vearnings  of  Grav  began  after  he  had 
'ceased  producing,"  it  is  certain  that  very  little  of  his  poetic  work 
expressed  these  yearnings.  "Elegance,  sweetness,  pathos,  or 
even  majestv  he  could  achieve,  but  never  that  force  which  vi- 
brates in  every  verse  of  larger  moulded  men."  Change  Lowell's 
word  "could"  to  "  did,"  and  this  sentence  will  serve  our  pur- 
pose here.  3 


s. 


Our  interest  in  Gray's  Romanticism  must  confine  itself  to  the 
two  odes  from  the  Old  Norse.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  first 
"-Vltransplanting  to  English  poetry  of  Old  Norse  song  came  about 
through  the  scholar's  agency,  not  the  poet's.  It  was  Gray,  the 
scholar,  that  made  "The  Descent  of  Odin"  and  "The  Fatal 
Sisters."  They  were  intended  to  serve  as  specimens  of  a  for- 
gotten literature  in  a  history  of  English  poetry.  In  the  "Adver- 
cisement"  to  "  The  Fatal  Sisters"  he  tells  how  he  came  to  give 
up  the  plan:  "The  Author  has  long  since  drop'd  his  design, 
especiallv  after  he  heard,  that  it  was  already  in  the  hands  of  a 
Person  well  qualified  to  do  it  justice,  both  by  his  taste,  and  his 
researches  into  antiquity."  Thomas  Warton's  History  of  Eng- 
lish Poetry  was  the  execution  of  this  design,  but  in  that  book  no 
place  was  found  for  these  poems. 

In  his  absurd  Life  of  Gray^  Dr.  Johnson  said  :  "  His  trans- 
lations of  Northern  and  Welsh  Poetry  deserve  praise  :  the  imagery 
is  preserved,  perhaps  often  improved,  but  the  language  is  unlike 
the  language  of  other  poets."  There  are  more  correct  statements 
in  this  sentence,  perhaps,  than  in  any  other  in  the  essay,  but  this 
is  because  ignorance  sometimes  hits  the  truth.  It  is  not  likely 
that  the  poems  would  have  been  understood  without  the  preface 
and  the  explanatory  notes,  and  these,  in  a  measure,  made  the 
reader  interested  in  the  literature  from  which  they  were  drawn. 
Gray  called  the  pieces  "dreadful  songs,"  and  so  in  very  truth 
they  are.  Strength  is  the  dominant  note,  rude,  barbaric  strength, 
and  only  the  art  of  Gray  saved  it  from  condemnation.  To-day, 
with  so  many  imitations  from  Old  Norse  to  draw  ujDon,  we  can- 
not point  to  a  single  poem  which  preserves  spirit  and  form  as 
well  as  those  of  Gray.     Take  the  stanza  : 

Horror  covers  all  the  heath, 

Clouds  of  carnage  blot  the  sun, 
Sisters,  wea\e  the  web  of  death  ; 

Sisters,  cease,  the  work  is  done. 

The  strophe  is  perfect  in  every  detail.  Short  lines,  each  end- 
V  ing  a  sentence;  alliteration;  words  that  echo  the  sense,  and  just 
four  strokes  to  paint  a  picture  which  has  an  atmosphere  that 
whisks  you  into  its  own  world  incontinently.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  writers  of  later  days  who  have  tried  similar  imitations  ascribe 
to  Thomas  Gray  the  mastership. 


That  this  poet  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who  "  equally  de- 
spised what  was  Greek  and  what  was  Gothic,"  should  have  entei'ed 
so  fully  into  the  spirit  and  letter  of  Old  Norse  poetry  is  little 
short  of  marvelous.  If  Professor  G.  L.  Kittredge  had  not  gone 
so  minutely  into  the  question  of  Gray's  knowledge  of  Old  Norse/ 
we  might  be  pardoned  for  still  believing  with  Gosse"  that  the  poet 
learned  Icelandic  in  his  later  life.  Even  after  reading  Professor 
Kittrcdge's  essav,  we  cannot  understand  how  Gray  could  catch 
the  metrical  lilt  of  the  Old  Norse  with  only  a  Latin  version  to 
transliterate  the  parallel  Icelandic.  We  suspect  that  Gray's 
knowledge  was  fuller  than  Professor  Kittredge  will  allow,  al- 
though.'we  must  admit  that  superficial  knowledge  may  coexist 
with  a  fine  interpretative  spirit.  Matthew  Arnold's  knowledge 
of  Celtic  literature  was  meagre,  yet  he  wrote  memorably  and 
beautifully  on  that  subject,  as  Celts  themselves  wall  acknowledge.^ 

The  Sources  of  Gray's  Knowledge. 
It  has  already  been  said  that  only  antiquarians  had  knowledge 
of  things  Icelandic  in  Gray's  time.  Most  of  this  knowledge  was 
in  Latin,  of  course,  in  ponderous  tomes  with  wonderful,  long 
titles ;  and  the  list  of  them  is  awe-inspiring.  In  all  likelihood 
Gray  did  not  use  them  all,  but  he  met  refeixnces  to  them  in  the 
books  he  did  consult.  Professor  Kittredge  mentions  them  in  the 
paper  already  quoted,  but  they  are  here  arranged  m  the  order  of 
publication,  and  the  list  is  lengthened  to  include  some  books  that 
were  inspired  by  the  interest  in  Gray's  experiments. 

1636  and  1651.      Wormius.      Seit   Danica  literatura  antiquis- 
sima^    vulgo    Gothica    dicta^    Iitci    rcddlta     opera    Olai 
Wormii.     Cui  accessit  dc  prisca  Danorum  Poesi  Disser- 
tatio.      Hafniae.      1636.      Edit.  II.      1651. 

The  essay  on  poetry  contains  interlinear  Latin  transla- 
tions of  the  Epicedhun  of  Ragnar  Lo6br6k,  and  oi  the 
Drdpa  of  Egill  Skallagn'msson.  Bound  with  the  second 
edition  of  165 1,  and  bearing  the  date  1650,  is:  Specimen 
Lexici  rzatici,   obscui-ioru7)i   qnarundam   vocitfn,    quce    hi 

^  Pp.  xli-1  in  Selections  from  the  Poetry  and  Prose  of  Thomxis  Gray, 
edited  bj  W.  L.  Phelps.     Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston.      1S94. 

2  Life  of  Gray,  pp-  160  ff. 

!'_Wrn.  Sharpin  L^ja  Celtica,  p.  xx.  Patrick  Geddes  and  Colleagues. 
Edinburgh.     1896. 


6 

priscis  occurrunt  historiis  et  foetis  Daniels  eiiodationem 
exhibens.  Collectuin  a  Magno  Olavio  pastore  Latifasi- 
ensi^  .  .  .  nunc  in  ordineni  redactum^  auciutn  et  locuple- 
tatujn  ab  Olao   IVormio.     Hafnite. 

This  glossary  adduces  illustrations  from  the  great  poems 
of  Icelandic  literature.  Thus  early  the  names  and  forms 
of  the  ancient  literature  were  known. 

1665.       Resenius.      Edda    Islandoruin     a?i.     Chr.    ISICCXV 
islandice    conscripta   per    Snorrone?n    Sttirlce    Islandice. 
Nomophylaccm  nunc  primurn  islandice^  danice  et  latine 
.   .   .   Petri  Johannis  Resenii  .   .   .   Havniae.      1665. 

A  second  part  contains  a  disquisition  on  the  philosophy 
of  the    Voluspa  and  the  Hdvamal. 

1670.  Sheringham.  De  Anglorum  Gentis  Origine  Discep- 
tatio.  ^zia  eorum  migrationes^  varice  sedes^  et  ex  parte 
res  gestce^  a  cotifusione  Linguarum^  et  dispersione  Gen- 
tium^ usque  ad  advetittim  eorum  in  Britanfiiatn  investi- 
gantur ;  qjicedani  de  veterum  Anglorum  religione^ 
Deorum  cultu.,  eorumque  opinionibus  de  statu  atiimcE 
post  Jianc  vitam^  explicantur.  Azdhore  Roberto  Sher- 
inghamo.      Cantabrigiae.      1670. 

Chapter  XII  contains  an  account  of  Odin  extracted  from 
the  Edda,  Snorri  Sturluson  and  others. 

1679-92.  Temple.  Two  essays:  "Of  Heroic  Virtue,"  "Of 
Poetry,"  contained  in  The  Works  of  Sir  William  Temple. 
London.      1757.     Vol.  3,   jDp.   304-429. 

1689.  Bartholinus.  T/iotmc  Bartholini  Antiqnitatum  Dani- 
carum  de  cajtsis  conte?nptce  a  Danis  adhuc  gentilibus 
mortis  libri  III  ex  vetustis  codicibtis  et  monumentis  hac- 
tenus  ineditis  congested.      Hafniae.      16S9. 

The  pages  of  this  book  are  filled  with  extracts  from  Old 
Norse  sagas  and  poetry  which  are  translated  into  Latin.  No 
student  of  the  book  could  fail  to  get  a  considerable  knowl- 
edge of  the  spirit  and  the  form  of  the  ancient  literature.  • 

1 69 1.  Verelius.  Index  Ungues  veteris  Scytho-Scattdicce  sive 
GothiccB  ex  vetusti  cEvi  monumentis  .  .  .  cd  Rudbeck. 
Upsalae.      1691. 


i697'  Torfeus.  Orcades^  seu  reruin  Orcadensium  historic^. 
Havnije.      1697. 

1697.      Pcrinskjold.      Heimskringla^   eller    Siiorre    Siurhisojts 
Nordldndske  KoniDiga  Sago?'.      Stockholmia'.      1697. 
Contains  Latin  and  Swedish  translation. 

1705.      Hickes.    Lingiiarum  Vett.  Septentriotialiuin  thesaurus 
grammatico  criticus  et  ai'chcBologtcus.      Oxoniie.     1703—:;. 
This  work  is  discussed  later. 

1 716.      Dryden.       Miscellany  Poems.      Containing  Variety   of 

New    Translations  of    the    Ancient    Poets.    .    .    .    Pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Dryden.      London.      17 16. 

1720.  Keysler.  Atttiquitates  selectee  septentrionales  et  Cel- 
ticce  quibus  plurinia  loca  concilioruni  et  capitulariu7n  ex- 
planantur,  dogmata  theologice  ethnicce  Celtarzim  gejztium- 
que  septentr ional ill m  C7an  moribus  et  instittitis  inaiorum 
nostroriim  circa  idola.,  aras^  oracicla^  templa.^  lucos.,  saccr- 
dotes.,  regum  electiones^  co?nitia  ct  monumenta  sepiilchralia 
una  cum  reliquiis  gentilismi  in  coetibus  christia^iorum 
ex  monumentis  potissimum  hactenus  ineditis  fuse  perqui- 
runtur.  Autorc  Joh.  Georgio  Keysler.  Hannoverte. 
1720. 

1755'     Mallet.      Introduction   a   V Histoire  de  Dannemarc  oil 
Von  traite  de  la   Religion,  dcs  Lois.,  des  J/cvurs,  et  des 
Usages   des  Ancicns  Danois.      Par  M,  Mallet.      Copen- 
hague.      I7SS' 
Discussed  later. 

1756.  Mallet.  Monumens  de  la  Mythologie  et  la  Poesie  des 
Celtes  et  particulierement  des  ancietis  Scandinaves  .  .  . 
Par  M.  Mallet.      Copenhague.      i7=;6. 

1763.      Percy.     Pive  Pieces  of  Riinic  Poetry  translated  from. 
the  Islandic  Language.      London.      1763. 
This  book  is  described  on  a  later  page. 

1763.  Blair.  A  Critical  Dissertation  on  the  Poems  of  Ossian, 
the  Son  of  Fingal.      [By  Hugh  Blair.]      London.      1763. 

1770.  Percy.  Northern  Antiquities  :  or  a  descriptioji  of  the 
JManfiers,   Customs.,  Religion   and  Lazvs  of  the  ancient 


8 

Danes^  and  other  Northern  Nations  ;  including  these  of 
our  o-Lvn  Saxon  Ancestors.  With  a  translatiotz  of  the 
Edda  or  System  of  Runic  Mythology,  and  other  Pieces 
from  the  Ancient  Icelandic  Tongue.  Translated  from 
*  M.  MalleVs  Introduction  a  V Histoire  de  Dannemarc. 
London.      1770. 

1774.      Warton.         The     History    of    English    Poetry.       By 
Thomas  Walton.      London.      1774-81. 

In  this  book  the  prefatory  essay  entitled  "  On  the  Origin 
of  Romantic  Fiction  in  Europe  "  is  significant.  It  is  treated 
at  length  later  on. 


^^^ 


Sir  William  Temple  (162S-1699). 

From  the  above  list  it  appears  that  the  earliest  mention  in  the 
Ensflish  lano-uasre  of  Icelandic  literature  was  Sir  Williaili  Tem- 
pie's.  The  two  essays  noted  above  have  many  references  to 
Northern  customs  and  songs.  Macaulay's  praise  of  Temple's 
style  is  well  deserved,  and  the  slighting  remarks  about  the  matter 
do  not  apply  to  the  passages  in  evidence  here.  Temple's 
acknowledgments  to  Wormius  indicate  the  source  of  his  informa- 
tion, and  it  is  a  commentary  upon  the  exactness  of  the  anti- 
quarian's knowledge  that  so  many  of  the  statements  in  Temple's 
essays  are  perfectly  good  to-day.  Of  course  the  terms  "  Runic  " 
and  "  Gothic"  were  misused,  but  so  were  they  a  century  later. 
Odin  is  ''the  first  and  great  hero  of  the  western  Scythians;  he 
led  a  mighty  swarm  of  the  Getes,  under  the  name  of  Goths,  from 
the  Asiatic  Scythia  into  the  farthest  northwest  parts  of  Europe ; 
he  seated  and  spread  his  kingdom  round  the  whole  Baltic  sea, 
and  over  all  the  islands  in  it,  and  extended  it  westward  to  the 
ocean  and  southward  to  theElve."  ^  Temple  places  Odin's  expe- 
dition at  two  thousand  years  before  his  own  time,  but  he  gets 
many  other  facts  right.  Take  this  summing  up  of  the  old  Norse 
belief  as  an  example  : 

"An  opinion  was  fixed  and  general  among  them,  that  death 
was  but  the  entrance  into  another  life ;  that  all  men  who  lived 
lazy  and  inactive  lives,  and  died   natural  deaths,  by  sickness,  or 

iQf  Heroic  Virtue,  p.  355,  Vol.  Ill  of  Sir  William  Temple's  Works. 
London.     1770. 


9 

by  age,  went  into  vast  caves  underground,  all  dark  and  niiry^ 
full  of  noisom  creatures,  usual  in  such  places,  and  there  forever 
grovelled  in  endless  stench  and  misery.  On  the  contrary,  all 
who  gave  themselves  to  warlike  actions  and  enterprises,  to  the 
conquests  of  their  neighbors,  and  slaughters  of  enemies,  and 
died  in  battle,  or  of  violent  deaths  upon  bold  adventures  or  resolu- 
tions, they  went  immediately  to  the  vast  hall  or  palace  of  Odin, 
their  god  of  war,  who  eternally  kept  open  house  for  all  such 
guests,  where  they  were  entertained  at  infinite  tables,  in  per- 
petual feasts  and  mirth,  carousing  every  man  in  btnvls  made  of 
the  skulls  of  their  enemies  they  had  slain,  according  to  which 
numbers,  every  one  in  these  mansions  of  pleasure  was  the  most 
honoured  and  the  best  entertained."  ' 

Thus  before  Gray  was  born,  Temple  had  written  intelligently 
in  English  of  the  salient  features  of  the  Old  Norse  mvtholog-v. 
Later  in  the  same  essay,  he  recognized  that  some  of  the  civil  and 
political  procedures  of  his  country  were  traceable  to  the  North- 
men, and,  what  is  more  to  our  immediate  purpose,  he  recognized 
the  poetic  value  of  Old  Norse  song.  On  p.  35S  occurs  this 
paragraph  : 

"I  am  deceived,  if  in  this  sonnet  (two  stanzas  of  '  Regner 
Lodbi-og '),  and  a  following  ode  of  Scallogrim  there  be  not  a  vein 
truly  poetical,  and  in  its  kind  Pindaric,  taking  it  with  the  allow- 
ance of  the  different  climates,  fashions,  opinions,  and  languages 
of  such  distant  countries." 

Temple  certainly  had  no  knowledge  of  Old  Norse,  and  yet,  in 
1679,  he  could  write  so  of  a  poem  which  he  had  to  read  through 
the  Latin.  Sir  William  had  a  wide  knowledge  and  a  fine  ap- 
preciation of  literature,  and  an  enthusiasm  for  its  dissemination. 
He  takes  evident  delight  in  telling  the  fact  that  princes  and  kings 
of  the  olden  time  did  hicrh  honor  to  bards.  He  regrets  that 
classic  culture  was  snuffed  out  by  a  barbarous  people,  but  he  re- 
joices that  a  new  kind  came  to  take  its  place.  "Some  of  it 
wanted  not  the  true  spirit  of  poetry  in  some  degree,  or  that  natural 
inspiration  which  has  been  said  to  arise  from  some  spark  oi 
poetical  fire  wherewith  particular  men  are  born ;  and  such  as  it 
was,  it  served  the  turn,  not  only  to  please,  but  even  to  charm,  the 
ignorant  and  barbarous  vulgar,  where  it  was  in  use."  ■^ 

'  Of  Heroic  Virtue,  p.  356. 
2  Of  Poetry,  p.  416. 


10 

It  is  proverbial  that  music  hath  charms  to  soothe  the  savage 
breast.  That  savage  music  charms  cultivated  minds  is  not  pro- 
verbial, but  it  is  nevertheless  true.  Here  is  Sir  William  Temple, 
scion  of  a  cultured  race,  bearing  witness  to  the  fact,  and  here  is 
Gray,  a  life-long  dweller  in  a  staid  English  university,  endorsing 
it  a  half  century  later.  As  has  been  intimated,  this  was  unusual 
in  the  time  in  which  they  lived,  when,  in  Lowell's  phrase,  the 
"  blight  of  propriety  "  was  on  all  poetry.  But  it  was  only  the 
rude  and  savage  in  an  unfamiliar  literature  that  could  give  pause 
in  the  age  of  Pope.  The  milder  aspects  of  Old  Norse  song  and 
saga  must  await  the  stronger  century  to  give  them  favor.  "  Be- 
hold, there  was  a  swarm  of  bees  and  honey  in  the  carcass  of 
the  lion." 

George  Hickes   (1642-171:^). 

The  next  book  in  the  list  that  contains  an  English  contribution 
to  the  knowledge  of  our  subject  is  the  Thesaurus  of  George 
Hickes.  On  p.  193  of  Part  I,  there  is  a  prose  translation  of 
"The  Awakening  of  Angantyr,"  from  the  Harvarar  Sag-a. 
Acknowledgment  is  given  to  Verelius  for  the  text  of  the  poem, 
but  Hickes  seems  to  have  chosen  this  poem  as  the  gem  of  the 
Saga,  i  The  translation  is  another  proof  of  an  antiquarian's  taste 
and  judgment,\ind  the  reader  does  not  wonder  that  it  soon  found 
a  wider  audience  through  another  publication.  It  \\as  reprinted 
in  the  books  of  17  16  and  1770  in  the  above  list.  An  extract  or 
two  ^^•ill  show  that  the  vigor  of  the  old  poem  has  not  been  al- 
together lost  in  the  translation  : 

Hervor. — Awake  Angant}-r,  Hervor  the  only  daughter  of 
thee  and  Snafu  doth  awaken  thee.  Give  me  out  of  the  tombe, 
the  hardned '  sword,  which  the  dwarfs  made  for  Suafurlama. 
Hervardur,  Pliorvardur,  Hrani,  and  Angantyr,  with  helmet,  and 
coat  of  mail,  and  a  sharp  sword,  with  sheild  and  accoutrements, 
and  liloody  spear,  I  wake  you  all,  under  the  roots  of  trees.  Are 
the  sons  of  Andgrym,  who  delighted  in  mischief,  now  become 
dust  and  ashes,  can  none  of  Eyvors  sons  now  speak  with  me  out 
of  the  habitations  of  the  dead  !  Harvardur,  Hiorvardur  !  so  may 
you  all  be  within  your  ribs,  as  a  thing  that  is  hanged  up  to  putri- 
fie  among  insects,  unlesse  you  deliver  me  the  sword  which  the 
dwarfs  made   .   .    .   and  the  glorious  belt. 

^  Spelling  and  punctuation  are  as  in  the  original. 


11 

Angantyr. — Daughter  llervor,  full  of  spells  to  raise  the  dead, 
why  dost  thou  call  so?  wilt  thou  run  on  to  th\'  own  mischief? 
thou  art  mad,  and  out  of  thv  senses,  who  art  desperatly  re- 
solved to  waken  dead  men.  I  was  not  buried  either  by  father  or 
other  freinds.  Two  which  lived  after  me  got  Tirfing,  one  of 
whome  is  now  possessor  thereof. 

Hervor. — Thou  dost  not  tell  the  truth  :  so  let  Odin  hide  thee 
in  the  tombe,  as  thou  hast  Tirfing  by  thee.  Art  thou  unwilling, 
Angantyr,  to  give  an  inheritance  to  thy  only  child? 

Angantyr. — Fals  woman,  thou  dost  not  understand,  that 
thou  speakest  foolishly  of  that,  in  which  thou  dost  rejoice,  for 
Tirfing  shall,  if  thou  wilt  beleive  me,  maid,  destroy  all  th\  off- 
spring. 

Hervor. — I  must  go  to  my  seamen,  here  I  have  no  mind  to 
stay  longer.  Little  do  I  care,  O  Royall  fremd,  what  my  sons 
hereafter  quarrell  about. 

Atigantyr. — Take  and  keep  Hialmars  bane,  \\bich  thou  slialt 
long  have  and  enjoy,  touch  but  the  edges  of  it,  there  is  poyson 
in  both  of  them,  it  is  a  most  cruell  devourer  of  men. 

Hervor. — I  shall  keep,  and  take  in  hand,  the  sharp  sword 
which  thou  hast  let  me  have  :  I  do  not  fear,  O  slain  father  !  what 
my  sons  hereafter  may  quarrell  about.  .  .  .  Dwell  all  of  you 
safe  in  the  tombe,  I  must  be  gon,  and  hasten  hence,  for  I  seem 
to  be,  in  the  midst  of  a  place  where  fire  burns  round  about  me. 

One  can  well  understand,  who  handles  the  ponderous  T/ie- 
sanrus.,  why  the  first  English  lovers  of  Old  Norse  were  antiquar- 
ians. "  The  Awakening  of  Angantyr  "  is  literally  buried  in  this 
work,  and  only  the  student  of  Anglo-Saxon  prosody  would  come 
upon  it  unassisted,  since  it  is  an  illustration  in  a  chapter  of  the 
Grammaticce  Anglo- Saxoniccv  et  Mccso-GothiciC.  Students 
will  remember  in  this  connection  that  it  was  a  work  on  poetics  that 
saved  for  us  the  original  Icelandic  Edda.  The  Icelandic  skald 
had  to  know  his  nation's  mythology. 

Thomas    Percy   (1729-1S11). 

The  title  of  Chapter  XXIII  in  Hickes'  work  indicates  that  even 
among  learned  doctors  mistaken  notions  existed  as  to  the  relation- 
ship of  the  Teutonic  languages.  It  took  more  than  a  hundred 
years  to  set  the  error  right,  but  in  the  meanwhile  the  literature  of 


12 

Iceland  was  becoming  better  known  to  English  readers.  To  the 
French  scholar,  Paul  Henri  Mallet  ( 1730-1S07),  Europe  owes  the 
first  popular  presentation  of  Northern  antiquities  and  literature. 
Appointed  professor  of  belles-lettres  in  the  Copenhagen  academy 
he  found  himself  with  more  time  than  students  on  his  hands,  be- 
cause not  many  Danes  at  that  time  understood  French.  His  lei- 
sure time  was  applied  to  the  study  of  the  antiquities  of  his 
adopted  country,  the  King's  commission  for  a  history  of  Den- 
mark making  that  necessary.  As  a  preface  to  this  work  he  pub- 
lished, in  1755,  an  Introduction  a  V Histoire  de  Dannemarc  oil 
I'oti  traite  de  la  Religion,,  des  Lois,,  des  Mceurs  et  des  Usages 
dcs  Anciens  Danois,,  and,  in  1756,  the  work  in  the  list  on  a  pre- 
vious page.  In  this  second  book  was  the  first  translation  into  a 
modern  tongue  of  the  Edda,  and  this  volume,  in  consequence,  at- 
tracted much  attention.  The  great  English  antiquarian,  Thomas 
Percy,  afterward  Bishop  of  Dromore,  was  early  drawn  to  this 
work,  and  with  the  aid  of  friends  he  accomplished  a  translation 
of  it,  which  was  published  in  1770. 

Mallet's  work  was  very  bad  in  its  account  of  the  racial  affinities 
of  the  nations  commonly  referred  to  as  the  barbarians  that  over- 
turned the  Roman  empire  and  culture.  Percy,  who  had  failed 
to  edit  the  ballad  MSS.  so  as  to  please  Ritson,  was  wise  enough 
to  see  Mallet's  error,  and  to  insist  that  Celtic  and  Gothic  anti- 
quities must  not  be  confounded.  '  Mallet's  translation  of  the 
Edda  was  imperfect,  too,  because  he  had  followed  the  Latin 
version  of  Resenius,  w-hich  was  notoriously  poor.  Percy's 
Edda  was  no  better,  because  it  was  only  an  English  version  of 
Mallet.  But  we  are  not  concerned  with  these  critical  considera- 
tions here ;  and  so  it  wull  be  enough  to  record  the  fact  that  with 
the  publication  of  Percy's  Northern  Antiquities — the  English 
name  of  Mallet's  work— in  1770,  knowledge  of  Icelandic  litera- 
ture passed  from  the  exclusive  control  of  learned  antiquarians. 
More  and  more,  as  time  went  on,  men  went  to  the  Icelandic 
originals,  and  translations  of  poems  and  sagas  came  from  the 
press  in  increasing  numbers.  In  the  course  of  time  came  original 
works  that  were  inspired  by  Old  Norse  stories  and  Old  Norse, 
conceptions. 

We  have  already  noted  that  Gray's  poems  on  Icelandic  themes, 
though  written  in  1761,  were  not  published  until  176S.     Another 


13 

delayed  work  on  similar  themes  was  Percy's  Five  Pieces  of 
Runic  Poetry^  which,  the  author  tells  us,  was  prepared  for  the 
press  in  1761,  but,  through  an  accident,  was  not  published  until 
1763.  The  preface  has  this  interesting  sentence  :  "  It  would  be 
as  vain  to  deny,  as  it  is  perhaps  impolitic  to  mention,  that  this  at- 
tempt is  owing  to  the  success  of  the  Erse  fragments."  The  book 
has  an  appendix  containing  the  Icelandic  originals  of  the  poems 
translated,  and  that  portion  of  the  book  shows  that  a  scholar's 
hand  and  interest  made  the  volume.  So,  too,  does  the  close  of 
the  preface  :  "  That  the  study  of  ancient  northern  literature  hath 
its  important  uses  has  been  often  evinced  by  able  writers  :  and 
that  it  is  not  dr}-  or  unamusive  this  little  work  it  is  hoped  will 
demonstrate.  Its  aim  at  least  is  to  shew,  that  if  those  kind  of 
studies  are  not  always  employed  on  works  of  taste  or  classic  ele- 
gance, they  serve  at  least  to  unlock  the  treasures  of  native  genius  : 
they  present  us  with  frequent  sallies  of  b*)ld  imagination,  and 
constantly  afford  matter  for  philosophical  reflection  by  showing 
the  workings  of  the  human  mind  in  its  almost  original  state  of 
nature." 

That  original  state  was  certainlv  one  of  original  sin,  if  these 
poems  are  to  be  believed.  Every  page  in  this  volume  is  drenched 
with  blood,  and  from  this  book,  as  from  Gray's  poems  and  the 
other  Old  Norse  imitations  of  the  time,  a  picture  of  fierceness 
and  fearfulness  was  the  only  one  possible.  Percy  intimates  in 
his  preface  that  Icelandic  poetry  has  other  tales  to  tell  besides  the 
"  Incantation  of  Hervor,"  the  "•  Dying jOde  of  Regner  Lodbrog," 
the  "  Ransome  of  Egill  the  Scald,"  and  the  "Funeral  Song  of 
Hacon,"  which  are- here  set  down;  he  offers  the  "Complaint  of 
Harold"  as  a  slight  indication  that  the  old  poets  left  "behind 
them  many  pieces  on  the  gentler  subjects  of  love  or  friendship." 
But  the  time  had  not  come  for  the  presentation  of  those  pieces. 

All  of  these  translations  were  from  the  Latin  versions  extant 
in  Percy's  time.  This  volume  copied  Hickes's  translation  of 
"  Hervor's  Incantation"  modified  in  a  few  particulars,  and  like 
that  one,  the  other  translations  in  this  volume  were  in  prose.  The 
work  is  done  as  well  as  possible,  and  it  remained  for  later  scholars 
to  point  out  errors  in  ti-anslation.  The  negative  contractions  in 
Icelandic  were  as  yet  unfamiliar,  and  so,  as  Walter  Scott  pointed 
out  (in  Edin.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1806),  Percy  made  Regner  Lodbrog 


14 

say,  "The  pleasure  of  that  day  (of  battle,  p.  34  in  this  ^Vz-e 
Pieces)  was  like  having  a  fair  virgin  placed  beside  one  in  the 
bed,"  and  "The  pleasure  of  that  day  was  like  kissing  a  young 
widow  at  the  highest  seat  of  the  table,"  when  the  poet  really 
made  the  contrary  statement. 

Of  course,  the  value  of  this  book  depends  upon  the  view 
that  is  taken  of  it.  Intrinsically,  as  literature,  it  is  well-nigh 
valueless.  It  indicates  to  us,  however,  a  constantly  growing 
interest  in  the  literature  it  reveals,  and  it  undoubtedly  directed 
the  attention  of  the  poets  of  the  succeeding  generation  to  a  field 
rich  in  romantic  possibilities.  That  no  great  work  was  then 
created  out  of  this  material  was  not  due  to  neglect.  As  we  shall 
see,  many  puny  poets  strove  to  breathe  life  into  these  bones,  but 
the  divine  power  was  not  in  the  poets.  Some  who  were  not 
poets  had  yet  the  insight  to  feel  the  value  of  this  ancient  litera- 
ture, and  they  made  known  the  facts  concerning  it.  It  seems  a 
mechanical  and  unpromising  way  to  have  great  poetry  written, 
this  calling  out,  "New  Lamps  for  Old."  Yet  it  is  on  record 
that  great  poems  have  been  written  at  just  such  instigation. 

Thomas  Warton   (172S-1790). 

Historians^  of  Romanticism  have  marked  Warton's  History  of 
English  Poetry  as  one  of  the  forces  that  made  for  the  new  idea 
in  literature.  This  record  of  a  past  which,  though  out  of  favor, 
was  immeasvu'ably  superior  to  the  time  of  its  historian,  spread 
new  views  concerning  the  poetic  art  among  the  rising  generation, 
and  suggested  new  subjects  as  well  as  new  treatments  of  old  sub- 
jects. We  have  mentioned  the  fact  that  Gray  handed  over  to 
Warton  his  notes  for  a  contemplated  history  of  poetry,  and  that 
Warton  found  no  place  in  his  work  for  Gray's  adaptations  from 
the  Old  Norse.  Warton  was  not  blind  to  the  beauties  of  Gray's 
poems,  nor  did  he  fail  to  appreciate  the  merits  of  the  litera- 
ture which  they  illustrated.  His  scheme  relegated  his  remarks 
concerning  that  poetr}^  to  the  introductory  dissertation,  "  Of  the 
Origin  of  Romantic  Fiction  in  Europe."  What  he  had  to  say 
was  in  support  of  a  theory  which  is  not  accepted  to-day,  and  of 
course  his  statements  concerning  the  origin  of  the  Scandinavian 

'  Stopford  Brooke,  English  Literature.    D.  Appleton  e^^  Co.,  New  York. 
1884.     p.  150. 


15 

people  were  as  wrong  as  those  that  we  found  in  Alallet  and 
Temple.  But  with  all  his  misinformation,  W'arton  managed  U> 
get  at  many  truths  about  Icelandic  poetry,  and  his  presentation  of 
them  was  fresh  and  stimulating.  Already  the  Old  Norse  mythol- 
ogy was  well  known,  even  down  to  Valhalla  and  the  mistletoe. 
Old  Norse  poetry  was  well  enough  known  to  call  forth  this  re- 
mark : 

"  They  (the  '  Runic '  odes)  have  a  certain  sublime  and  figura- 
tive cast  of  diction,  which  is  indeed  one  of  their  predominant 
characteristics.  .  .  .  When  obvious  terms  and  phrases  evidently 
occurred,  the  Runic  poets  are  fond  of  departing  from  the  com- 
mon and  established  diction.  They  appear  to  use  circumlocu- 
tion and  comparisons  not  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  but  of  choice 
and  skill  :  nor  are  these  metaphorical  colourings  so  much  the  re- 
sult of  want  of  words,  as  of  warmth  of  fancy."  The  note  gives 
these  examples:  "  Thus,  a  rainbow  is  called,  the  bridge  of  the 
gods.  Poetry,  the  mead  of  Odin.  The  earth,  the  vessel  that 
floats  on  ages.  A  ship,  the  horse  of  the  waves.  A  tongue,  the 
sword  of  words.     Night,  the  veil  of  cares." 

A  studv  of  the  notes  to  Warton's  dissertation  reveals  the  fact  , 
that  he  had  made  use  of  the  books  already  mentioned  in  the  list  ■ 
on  a  previous  page,  and  of  no  others  that  are  significant.  But 
such  excellent  use  was  made  of  them,  that  it  would  seem  as  if 
nothing  was  left  in  them  that  could  be  made  valuable  for  spread- 
ing a  knowledge  of  and  an  enthusiasm  for  Icelandic  literature. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  Warton's  purpose  was  to  prove  the 
Saracenic  origin  of  romantic  fiction  in  Europe,  through  the  Moors 
in  Spain,  and  that  Icelandic  literature  was  mentioned  only  to  ac- 
count for  a  certain  un-Arabian  tinge  in  that  romantic  fiction,  the 
wonder  grows  that  so  full  and  fresh  a  presentation  of  Old  Norse 
poetry  should  have  been  made.  He  puts  such  passages  as  these 
into  his  illustrative  notes  :  "  Tell  my  mother  Suanhita  in  Den- 
mark, that  she  will  not  this  summer  comb  the  hair  of  her  son.  I 
had  promised  her  to  return,  but  now  my  side  shall  feel  the  edge 
of  the  sword."  There  is  an  appreciation  of  the  poetic  here,  that 
makes  us  feel  that  Warton  was  not  an  unworthy  wearer  of  the 
laurel.  He  insists  that  the  Saxon  poetry  was  powerfully  affected 
by  "the  old  scaldic  fables  and  heroes,"  and  gives  in  the  text  a 
translation  of  the  "  Battle  of  Brunenburgh "  to  prove  his  case. 


16 

He  admires  "the  scaldic  dialogue  at  the  tomb  of  Angantyr,"  but 
wrong! V  attributes  a  beautiful  translation  of  it  to  Gray.  He 
quotes  at  length  from  "  a  noble  ode,  called  in  the  northern  chron- 
icles the  Elogium  of  Hacon,  by  the  scald  Eyvynd ;  who,  for  his 
superior  skill  in  poetry  was  called  the  Cross  of  Poets  (Eyvindr 
Skalldaspillir),  and  fought  in  the  battle  which  he  celebrated." 

He  knows  how  Iceland  touched  England,  as  this  passage  will 
show:  "That  the  Icelandic  bards  were  common  in  England 
during  the  Danish  invasions,  there  are  numerous  proofs.  Egill, 
a  celebrated  Icelandic  poet,  having  murthered  the  son  and  many 
of  the  friends  of  Eric  Blodaxe,  king  of  Denmark  or  Norway, 
then  residing  in  Northumberland,  and  which  he  had  just  con- 
quered, procured  a  pardon  by  singing  before  the  king,  at  the 
command  of  his  queen  Gunhilde,  an  extemporaneous  ode.  Egill 
compliments  the  king,  who  probably  was  his  patron,  with  the 
appellation  of  the  English  chief.  "  I  offer  my  freight  to  the 
king.  I  owe  a  poem  for  my  ransom.  I  present  to  the  English 
Chief  the  mead  of  Odin."  Afterwards  he  calls  this  Danish 
conqueror  the  commander  of  the  Scottish  fleet.  "  The  com- 
mander of  the  Scottish  fleet  fattened  the  ravenous  birds.  The 
sister  of  Nera  (Death)  trampled  on  the  foe  :  she  trampled  on  the 
evening  food  of  the  eagle." 

.So  wide  a  knowledge  and  so  keen  an  appreciation  of  Old 
Norse  in  a  Warton,  whose  intei'est  was  chiefly  elsewhere,  argues 
for  a  spi-eading  popularity  of  the  ancient  literature.  Thus  far, 
only  Gray  has  made  living  English  literature  out  of  these  old 
stories,  and  he  only  two  short  poems.  There  were  other  attempts 
to  achieve  poetic  success  with  this  foreign  material,  but  a  hun- 
dred exacting  years  have  covered  them  with  oblivion. 

Drake  (1766-1S36).     Mathias  (1754-1835). 

In  the  second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Nathan  Drake, 
M.D.,  made  a  strong  effort  to  popularize  Norse  mythology  and 
literature.  The  fourth  edition  of  his  work  entitled  Literary 
Hours  (London,  1820)  contains^  an  appreciative  article  on  the 
subject,  the  fullness  of  which  is  indicated  in  these  words  from 
p.  309  : 

"The   most   striking  and  characteristic  parts   of  the   Scandi- 

1  Vol.  3,  pp.  146-31 1. 


17 

navian  mythology,  together  \vith  no  inconsiderable  portion  of 
the  manners  and  customs  of  our  northern  ancestors,  have  now 
passed  before  the  reader ;  their  theology,  warfare,  and  poetry, 
their  gallantry,  religious  rites,  and  superstitions,  have  been 
separately,  and,  I  trust,  distinctly  reviewed." 

The  essay  is  written  in  an  easy  style  that  doubtless  gained  for 
it  many  readers.  All  the  available  knowledge  of  the  subject 
was  used,  and  a  clearer  view  of  it  was  presented  than  had  been 
obtainable  in  Percy's  "Mallet."  The  author  was  a  thoughtful 
man,  able  to  detect  errors  in  Warton  and  Percy,  but  his  zeal  in 
his  enterprise  led  him  to  praise  versifiers  inoixlinately  that  had 
used  the  "Gothic  fables."  He  quotes  liberally  from  writers 
whose  books  are  not  to  be  had  in  this  country,  and  certainlv  the 
uninspired  verses  merit  the  neglect  that  this  fact  indicates.  He 
calls  Sayers'  pen  "  masterly"  that  wrote  these  lines  : 

Coucher  of  the  ponderous  spear, 

Thou  shout' St  amid  the  battle's  stound — 
The  armed  Sisters  hear, 

Viewless  hurrying  o'er  the  ground 
They  strike  the  destin'd  chiefs  and  call  them  to  the  skies. 

(F.  i68.) 

From  Penrose  he  quotes  such  lines  as  these  : 

The  feast  begins,  the  skull  goes  round, 
Laughter  shouts — the  shouts  resound. 
The  gust  of  war  subsides — E'en  now 

The  grim  chief  curls  his  cheek,  and  smooths  his  rugged  brow. 

(P.  171.) 
From  Sterling  comes  this  imitation  of   Gray  : 

Now  the  rage  of  combat  burns, 

Haughty  chiefs  on  chiefs  lie  slain  ; 

The  battle  glows  and  sinks  by  turns. 
Death  and  carnage  load  the  plain. 

(P.  172.) 

From  these  extracts,  it  appears  that  the  poets  who  imitated 
Gray  considered  that  only  "  dreadful  songs,"  like  his,  were  to  be 
found  in  Scandinavian  poetry. 

Downman,  Herbert  and  Mathias  are  also  adduced  by  Dr. 
Drake  as  examples  of  poets  who  have  gained  much  by  Old  Norse 
borrowings,  but  these  borro\\dngs  are  iiavariably  scenes  from  a 


18 

chamber  of  horrors.  It  occurs  to  me  that  perhaps  Dr.  Drake 
had  begun  to  tire  of  the  spiritless  echoes  of  the  classical  schools, 
and  that  he  fondly  hoped  that  such  shrieks  and  groans  as  those 
he  admired  in  this  essay  would  satisfy  his  cravings  for  better 
things  in  poetry.  But  the  critic  had  no  adequate  knowledge  of 
the  way  in  which  genius  works.  His  one  desire  in  these  studies 
of  Scandinavian  mythology  was  "to  recommend  it  to  the  votaries 
of  the  Muse,  as  a  machinery  admirably  constructed  for  their  pur- 
pose "  (p.  15S).  He  hopes  for  "a  more  extensive  adoption  of 
the  Scandinavian  mythology,  especially  in  our  epic  and  lyric 
compositions"  (p.  311).  We  smile  at  the  notion,  to-day,  but 
that  very  conception  of  poetry  as  "  machinery"  is  characteristic 
of  a  whole  century  of  our  English  literature. 

The  Mathias  mentioned  by  Drake  is  Thomas  James  Mathias, 
whose  book,  Odes  Chiefly  from  the  Norse  Tongue  (London, 
17S1),  received  the  distinction  of  an  American  reprint  (New 
York,  1S06).  Bartholinus  furnishes  the  material  and  Gray  the 
spirit  for  these  pieces. 

Amos  S.  Cottle  (176S-1S00).     William  Herbert 

(177S-1S47). 

In  this  period  belong  two  works  of  translation  that  mark  the 
approach  of  the  time  when  Old  Norse  prose  and  poetry  were  to 
be  read  in  the  original.  As  literature  they  are  of  little  value,  and 
they  had  but  slight  influence  on  succeeding  writers. 

At  Bristol,  in  1797,  was  published  Icelandic  Poetry^  or^  The 
Edda  of  Saemnnd  translated  into  English  Verse,  by  A.  S. 
Cottle  of  Magdalen  College,  Cambridge.  This  work  has  an  In- 
troduction containing  nothing  worth  discussing  here,  and  an 
"  Epistle"  to  A.  S.  Cottle  from  Robert  Southey.  The  laureate, 
in  good  blank  verse,  discourses  on  the  Old  Norse  heroes  whom 
he  happens  to  know  about.  They  are  the  old  favorites,  Regner 
Lodbrog  and  his  sons ;  in  Southey's  poem  the  foeman's  skull  is, 
as  usual,  the  drinking  cup.  It  was  certainly  time  for  new  actors 
and  new  properties  to  appear  in  English  versions  of  Scandinavian 
stories. 

The  translations  are  twelve  in  number,  and  evince  an  intelli- 
gent and  facile  versifier.  When  all  is  said,  these  old  songs  could 
contribute  to  the  pleasure  of  very  few.      Only  a  student  of  his- 


19 

tory,  or  :i  poet,  or  an  antiquarian,  would  dwell  with  lo\  ing  in- 
terest on  the  lays  of  Vafthrudnis,  Grimner,  Skirner  and  Hvmer 
(as  Cottle  spells  them).  Besides,  they  are  difficult  to  read,  and 
must  be  abundantly  annotated  to  make  them  comprehensible.  In 
such  works  as  this  of  Cottle,  a  Scott  might  find  wherewith  to 
lend  color  to  a  story  or  a  poem,  but  the  common  man  would  bor- 
row Walpole's  \voi"ds,  used  in  characterizing  Gray's  "Odes": 
"  They  are  not  interesting,  and  do  not  .  .  .  touch  any  passion; 
our  human  feelings  .  .  .  are  not  here  affected.  Who  can  care 
through  what  horrors  a  Runic  savage  arrived  at  all  the  joys  and 
glories  they  could  conceive — the  supreme  felicity  of  boozing  ale 
out  of  the  skull  of  an  enemy  in  Odin's  hall?  "  ^ 

In  1S04  a  book  was  published  bearing  this  title-page  :  Select 
Icelandic  Poetry^  translated  from  the  originals :  with  notes. 
The  preface  was  signed  by  the  author,  William  Herbert.  The 
pieces  are  from  Saemund,  Bartholinus,  Verelius,  and  Perinskjold's 
edition  of  Heimskringla.,  and  were  all  translated  with  the  as- 
sistance of  the  Latin  versions.  The  notes  are  explanatory  of  the 
allusions  and  the  hiatuses  in  the  poems.  Reference  is  made  to 
MSS.  of  the  Norse  pieces  existing  in  museums. and  libraries, 
which  the  author  had  consulted.  Thus  we  see  scholarship  be- 
ginning to  extend  investigations.  As  for  the  verses  themselves 
not  much  need  be  said.  They  are  not  so  good  as  Cottle's,  al- 
though they  received  a  notice  from  Scott  in  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
view. The  thing  to  notice  about  the  work  is  that  it  pretends  to 
come  direct  from  Old  Norse,  not,  as  most  of  the  work  dealt  with 
so  far,  via  Latin. 

Icelandic  poetry  is  more  difiicult  to  read  than  Icelandic  prose, 
and  so  it  seems  strange  that  the  former  should  have  been  attacked 
first  by  English  scholars.  Yet  so  it  was,  and  until  1S44  our 
English  literature  had  no  other  inspiration  in  old  Norse  writings 
than  the  rude  and  rugged  songs  that  first  lent  their  lilt  to  Gray. 
The  hutnan  North  is  in  the  sagas,  and  when  they  were  revealed  to 
our  people,  Icelandic  literature  began  to  mean  something  more 
than  Valhalla  and  the  mead-bouts  there.  The  scene  was  changed 
to  earth,  and  the  gods  gave  place  to  nobler  actors,  men  and 
women.  The  action  was  lifted  to  the  eminence  of  a  world- 
drama.     But  before  the  change  came  Sir  Weaker  Scott,  and   it  is 

^Quoted  in  Introduction,  p.  vii. 


20 

fitting  that  the  first  period  of  Norse  infiuence   in  English   litera- 
ture should  close,  as  it  began,  with  a  great  master. 

Sir  Walter  Scott   (1771-1S32). 

Tn  1792,  Walter  Scott  was  twenty-one  years  old,  and  one  of 
his  note-books  of  that  year  contains  this  entry  :  "  Vegtam's  Kvitha 
or  The  Descent  of  Odin,  with  the  Latin  of  Thomas  Bartholine, 
and  the  English  poetical  version  of  Mr.  Gray  ;  with  some  account 
of  the  Death  of  Balder,  both  as  related  in  the  Edda,  and  as 
handed  down  to  us  b}'  the  Northern  historians — Auctore  Gualtero 
Scott.'"  According  to  Lockhart,^  the  Icelandic,  Latin  and  Eng- 
lish versions  were  here  transcribed,  and  the  historical  account 
that  followed — seven  closely  written  quarto  pages — was  read 
before  a  debathig  societ}'. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  one  so  enthusiastic  about  antiquities 
as  Scott  would  early  discover  the  treasury  of  Norse  history  and 
song.  At  twenty-one,  as  we  see,  he  is  transcribing  a  song  in  a 
language  he  knew  nothing  about,  as  well  as  in  translations. 
Fourteen  years  later,  he  has  learned  enough  about  the  subject  to 
write  a  review  of  Herbert's  Poems  and  Translations."^ 

In  1S13,  he  writes  an  account  of  the  Eyrbyggja  Saga  for 
Illustrations  of  Northern  Antiquities  (edited  by  Robert  Jame- 
son, Edinburgh,  1S14). 

There  are  two  of  Scott's  contributions  to  literature  that  possess 
more  than  a  mere  tinge  of  Old  Norse  knowledge,  namely,  the 
long  poem  "Harold,  the  Dauntless"  (published  in  1S17),  and 
the  long  story  "The  Pirate"  (published  in  1S21).  The  poem 
is  weak,  but  it  illustrates  Scott's  theory  of  the  usefulness  of  poet- 
ical antiquities  to  the  modern  poet.  In  another  connection  Scott 
said  :  "In  the  rude  song  of  the  Scald,  we  regard  less  the  strained 
imagery  and  extravagance  of  epithet,  than  the  wdld  impressions 
which  it  conveys  of  the  dauntless  resolution,  savage  supei'stition, 
rude  festivity  and  ceaseless  depredations  of  the  ancient  Scandi- 
navians."^ The  poet  did  his  work  in  accordance  with  this 
theory,  and  so  in  "Harold,  the  Dauntless,"  we  note  no  flavor  of 

1  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Bart.,  Vol.  I,  p.  231.     Bos- 
ton, Houghton,  Osgood  &  Co.      1879. 
''Edinburgh  Review,  Oct.,  1806. 
3  Quoted  in  Lockhart's  Life,  Vol.  IIL  p.  241. 


21 

the  older  poetn  in  phrase  or  in  method.  Harold  is  fierce  enough 
and  grim  enough  to  measure  up  to  the  old  ideal  of  a  Norse  hero. 
"I  was  rocked  in  a  buckler  and  fed  from  a  blade,"  is  his  boast 
before  his  newlv  christened  father,  and  in  his  apostrophe  to  his 
grandsire  Eric,  the  popular  notion  of  early  Xorse  antiquarianism, 
is  again  exhibited  : 

In  wild  Valhalla  hast  thou  quaffed 
From  foeman's  skull  metheglin  draught  ? 

Scott's  scholarship  in  Old  Norse  was  largely  derived  from  the 
Latin  tomes,  and  such  conceptions  as  those  quoted  are  therefore 
common  in  his  poem.  That  the  poet  realized  the  inadequacy  of 
such  knowledge,  the  review  of  Herbert's  poetry,  published  in  the 
Ediitburgh  Review  for  October,  iSo6,  shows.  In  this  article 
he  has  a  vision  of  what  shall  be  when  men  shall  be  able  "'to 
trace  the  Runic  rhyme  "  itself. 

"  The  Pirate,"  exhibited  the  Wizard's  skill  in  weaving  the  old 
and  the  new  together,  the  old  being  the  traditions  of  the  Shet- 
lands,  full  of  the  ancestral  beliefs  in  Old  Norse  things,  the  new 
being  the  life  in  those  islands  in  a  recent  century.  This  is  a  stir- 
ring story,  that  comes  into  our  consideration  because  of  its  Scan- 
dinavian antiquities.  Again  w'e  find  the  Latin  treasuries  of  Bar- 
tholinus,  Torfaeus,  Perinskjold  and  Olaus  Magnus  in  evidence, 
though  here,  too,  mention  is  made  of  "  Haco,"  and  Tryggvason 
and  "  Harfa^er."  With  a  background  of  island  scenery,  with 
which  Scott  became  familiar  during  a  light-house  inspector's  voy- 
age made  in  1S14,  this  story  is  a  picture  full  of  vivid  colors  and 
characters.  In  Noma  of  the  Fitful  Head,  he  has  created  a  mys- 
terious personage  in  whose  mouth  '"  Runic  rhymes"  are  the  only 
proper  speech.  She  stills  the  tempest  with  them,  and  ''The 
Song  of  the  Tempest  "  is  a  strong  apostrophe,  though  it  is  neither 
Runic  nor  rhymed.  She  preludes  her  life-story  with  verses  that 
are  rhymed  but  not  Runic,  and  she  sings  incantations  in  the  same 
wise.  This  Reimkennar  is  an  echo  of  the  Vohispd.,  and  is  the 
only  kind  of  Norse  woman  that  the  time  of  Scott  could  imagine. 
Claud  Halcro,  the  poet,  is  fond  of  rhyming  the  only  kind  of  Norse- 
man known  to  his  time,  and  in  his  "  Song  of  Harold  Harfager  " 
we  hear  the  echoes  of  Gray's  odes.  Scott's  reading  was  wide  in 
all  ancient  lore,  and  hejiever  missed  a  chance  to  introduce  an  odd 


op 


custom  if  it  wuuld  make  an  interesting  scene  in  his  story.  So 
here  we  have  the  "  Sword  Dance  "  (celebrated  b\-  Olaus  Mag- 
nus, though  I  have  never  read  of  it  in  Old  Xorse),  the  "Ques- 
tioning of  the  Sibyl  "  (like  that  in  Gray's  "  Descent  of  Odin"), 
*he  "  Capture  and  Sharing  of  the  Whale,"  and  the  "  Promise  of 
Odin."  In  most  of  the  natives  there  are  turns  of  speech  that  re- 
call the  Norse  ancestry  of  the  Shetlanders. 

In  Scott,  then,  we  see  the  lengthening  out  of  the  influence  of 
the  antiquarians  who  wrote  of  a  dead  past  in  a  dead  language. 
The  time  was  at  hand  when  that  past  was  to  live  again,  painted 
in  the  living  words  of  living  men. 


( 


I 


III. 

* 

FROM   THE    SOURCES   THEMSELVES. 

In  the  preceding  section  we  noted  the  achievements  of  Eng- 
lish scholarship  and  genius  working  under  great  disadvantages. 
Gray  and  Scott  may  have  had  a  smattering  of  Icelandic,  but 
Latin  translations  were  necessary  to  reveal  the  meaning  of  what 
few  Old  Norse  texts  were  available  to  them.  This  paucity  of 
material,  more  than  the  ignorance  of  the  language,  was  respon- 
sible for  the  slow  progress  in  popularizing  the  remarkable  litera- 
ture of  the  North.  Scaldic  and  Eddie  poems  comprised  all  that 
was  known  to  English  readers  of  that  literature,  and  in  them  the 
superhuman  rather  than  the  human  elements  were  predominant. 

We  have  come  now  to  a  time  when  the  field  of  our  Aiew 
broadens  to  include  not  only  more  and  different  material,  but 
more  and  different  men,  ^The  sagas  were  annexed  to  the  old 
songs,  and  the  body  of  literature  to  attract  attention  was  thus  in- 
creased a  thousand  fold.^-  The  antiquarians  were  supplanted  by 
scholars  who,  although  passionately  devoted  to  the  study  of  the 
past,  were  still  vitally  interested  in  the  affairs  of  the  time  in 
which  they  lived.  The  second  and  greatest  stage  of  the  develop- 
ment of  Old  Norse  influence  in  England  has  a  mark  of  distinc- 
tion that  belongs  to  few  literary  epochs.  The  men  who  made  it 
lived  lives  that  were  as  heroic  in  devotion  to  duty  and  principle 
as  many  of  those  written  down  in  the  sagas  themselves.  I  have 
sometimes  wondered  whether  it  is  merely  accidental  that  English 
saga  scholars  were  so  often  men  of  high  soul  and  strong  action. 
Certain  it  is  that  Richard  Cleasby,  and  Samuel  Laing,  and 
George  Webbe  Dasent,  and  Robert  Lowe  are  types  of  men  that 
the  Icelanders  would  have  celebrated,  as  having  "  left  a  talc  to 
tell"  in  their  full  and  active  lives.  And  no  less  certain  is  it  that 
Thomas  Carlyle,  and  Matthew  Arnold,  and  William  Morris,  and 
Charles  Kingsley,  and  Gerald  Massey  labored  for  a  better  man- 
hood that  should  rise  to  the  stature  and  reflect  the  virtues  of  the 
heroes  of  the  Northland. 

23 


24 

Richard  Cleasby  (1797-1S47). 
In  the  forties  of  the  nineteenth  century  several  minds  began  to 
work,  independently  of  one  another,  in  this  wider  field  of  Ice- 
landic literature.  Richard  Cleasby  (1797-1S47),  an  English 
merchant's  son  with  scholarly  instincts,  began  the  study  of  the 
sagas,  but  made  slight  progress  because  of  what  he  called  an 
"unaccountable  and  most  scandalous  blank,"  the  want  of  a  dic- 
tionary. This  was  in  1S40,  and  for  the  next  seven  years  he 
labored  to  fill  up  that  blank.  The  record^  of  those  years  is  a 
wonderful  witness  to  the  heroism  and  spirit  of  the  scholar,  and 
justifies  Sir  George  Dasent's  characterization  of  Cleasby  as  "one 
of  the  most  indefatirable  students  that  ever  lived."  The  work 
thvis  begun  was  not  completed  until  many  years  afterward  (it  is 
dated  1874),  and,  by  untoward  circumstances,  very  little  of  it  is 
Richard  Cleasby's.  But  generous  scholarship  acknowledged  its 
debt  to  the  man  who  gave  his  strength  and  his  wealth  to  the 
work,  by  placing  his  name  on  the  title-page.  No  less  shall  we 
fail  to  honor  his  memory  by  mentioning  his  labors  here. 
Although  the  dictionary  was  not  completed  in  the  decade  of  its 
inception,  the  study  that  it  was  designed  to  promote  took  hold 
on  a  number  of  men  and  the  results  were  remarkable  for  both 
literature  and  scholarship. 

Thomas  Carlyle   (179^-1881). 

First  in  order  of  time  was  the  work  of  Thomas  Carlyle.  It 
will  not  seem  strange  to  the  student  of  English  literature  to  find 
that  this  writer  came  under  the  influence  of  the  old  skalds  and 
sagaman  and  spoke  appreciative  words  concerning  them.  His 
German  studies  had  to  take  cognizance  of  the  Old  Norse  treas- 
uries of  poetry,  and  he  became  a  diligent  reader  of  Icelandic 
literature  in  what  translations  he  could  get  at,  German  and  Ensf- 
lish.  The  strongest  utterance  on  the  subject  that  he  left  behind 
him  is  in  "Lecture  I"  of  the  series  "On  Heroes,  Hero-Wor- 
ship,  and  the  Heroic  in  History,"  dated  May,  1840.  This  is  a 
treatment  of  Scandinavian  mythology,  rugged  and  thorough,  like 
all  of  this  man's  work.     Carlyle  evinces  a   scholar's    instinct  in 

^  In  G.  W.  Dasent's  Life  of  Cleasbj,  prefixed  to  the  Icelandic-English 
Dictionary.  Based  on  the  MS.  collection  of  the  late  Richard  Cleasbj,  en- 
larged and  completed  by  Gudbrand  Vigfusson.     Oxford.      1874. 


2o 

more  than  one  place,  as,  for  instance,  when  he  doubts  theg'ranci- 
mother  etyinology  of  Edda^  an  etymology  repeated  vmtil  a  much 
later  day  by  scholars  of  a  less  sure  sense/  But  this  lecture 
"  On  Heroes  "  is  also  a  glorification  of  the  literature  with  whicli 
we  are  dealing,  and  in  this  regard  it  is  worthy  of  special  note 
here. 

In  the  first  place,  Carlyle  with  true  critical  instinct  caught  the 
essence  of  it;  to  him  it  seemed  to  have  "a  rude  childlike  wav 
of  recognizing  the  divineness  of  Nature,  the  divineness  of  Man." 
For  him  Scandinavian  mythology  was  superior  in  sincerity  to  the 
Grecian,  though  it  lacked  the  grace  of  the  latter.  "Sincerity,  I 
think,  is  better  than  grace.  I  feel  that  these  old  Northmen  Avere 
looking  into  Nature  with  open  eye  and  soul  :  most  earnest, 
honest ;  childlike,  and  vet  manlike ;  with  a  great-hearted  sim- 
plicity and  depth  and  freshness,  in  a  true,  loving,  admiring, 
unfearing  way.  Aright  valiant,  true  old  race  of  men."  This  is 
a  truer  appreciation  than  Grav  and  Walpole  had,  eighty  years 
before.  In  the  second  place,  Carlyle  w^as  not  misled  into  thinking 
that  valor  in  war  was  the  only  characteristic  of  the  rude  Noi'se- 
man,  and  skill  in  drinking  his  onh*  household  virtue.  "  Beauti- 
ful traits  of  pity,  too,  and  honest  pitv."  Then  he  tells  of  Baldur 
and  Nanna,  in  his  rugged  prose  account  anticipating  ]Matthew 
Arnold.  Other  qualities  of  the  literature  appeal  to  him.  "'I 
like  much  their  robust  simplicity  ;  their  veracity,  directness  of 
conception.  Thor  '  draws  down  his  brows  '  in  a  veritable  Norse 
rage ;  '  grasps  his  hammer  till  the  knuckles  ^^roxv  xvkite." 
Again;  "  A  great  broad  Brobdignag  grin  of  true  humor  is  this 
Skrymir ;  mirth  resting  on  earnestness  and  sadness,  as  the  rain- 
bow on  the  black  tempest :  only  a  right  valiant  heart  is  capable 
of  that."  Still  again:  "This  law  of  mutation,  which  also  is  a 
law  written  in  man's  inmost  thought,  has  been  deciphered  by 
these  old  earnest  Thinkers  in  their  rude  style." 

Thomas  Carlyle,  seeking  to  explain  the  worship  of  a  pagan 
divinity,  chose  Odin  as  the  noblest  example  of  such  a  hero.  The 
picture  of  Odin  he   drew  from   the  prose  Edda,  mainly,  and  his 

1  In  another  work  by  Carlyle,  T/ie  Early  Kings  of  Nor-vay  ( 1S75)  he 
takes  special  delight  in  revealing  to  Englishmen  name  etymologies  that 
hark  back  to  Norse  times.  Of  this  sort  are  Osborn  from  Osbjorn  ;  Tooley 
St.   (London)   from    St.  Olave,  St.  Oley,  Stooley,  Tooley,  (Chap.   X). 


26 

purpose  required  that  he  paint  the  picture  in  the  most  attractive 
colors.  So  it  happened  that  our  Enghsh  literature  got  its  first 
complete  view  of  Old  Norse  ethics  and  art.  The  memory  of 
Gray's  "dreadful  songs"  had  ruled  for  almost  a  century,  and 
ordinary  readers  might  be  pardoned  for  thinking  that  Old  Norse 
literature,  like  Old  Norse  history,  vv^as  w^ritten  in  blood.  We 
have  seen  that  Gray's  imitators  perpetuated  the  old  idea,  and 
that  even  Scott  sanctioned  it,  and  now  we  see  England's  eman- 
cipation from  it.  The  grouty  old  Scotchman  of  Craigenputtoch 
knew  no  more  Icelandic  than  most  of  his  fellow  countrymen  (be 
it  noted  that  he  said:  "From  the  Humber  upwards,  all  over 
Scotland,  the  speech  of  the  common  people  is  still  in  a  singu- 
lar degree  Icelandic,  its  Germanism  has  still  a  peculiar  Norse 
tinge")  ;  but  he  saw  far  more  deeply  into  the  heart  of  Icelandic 
literature  than  anybody  before  him.  His  emphasis  of  its  many 
sidedness,  of  its  sincerity,  its  humanity,  its  simplicity,  its  direct- 
ness, its  humor  and  its  wisdom,  was  the  signal  for  a  change  in 
the  popular  estimation  of  its  worth  to  our  modern  art.  Since 
his  day  we  have  had  Morris  and  Arnold  and  a  host  of  minor 
singers,  and  the  nineteenth  century  revival  of  interest  in  Old 
Norse  literature. 

The  other  work  by  Carlvle  dealing  directly  with  Old  Norse 
material  is  The.  Early  Kings  of  Norway.  Here  he  digests 
Heimskringla.^  which  was  obtainable  through  Laing's  transla- 
tion, in  a  way  to  stir  the  blood.  The  story,  as  he  tells  it,  is 
breathlessly  interesting,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  readers  of  Carlyle  so 
often  stop  short  of  this  work.  As  in  the  Hero -Worships  he 
shows  this  Teutonic  bias,  and  the  religious  training  that  minified 
Greek  literature. 

Snorri's  work  elicits  from  him  repeated  applause.  Here,  for 
instance,  in  Chap.  X  :  "It  has,  all  of  it,  the  description  (and  we 
see  clearly  the  fact  itself  had) ,  a  kind  of  pathetic  grandeur,  sim- 
plicity, and  rude  nobleness  ;  something  Epic  or  Homeric,  with- 
out the  metre  or  the  singing  of  Homer,  but  with  all  the  sincerity, 
rugged  truth  to  nature,  and  much  more  of  piety,  devoutness,  rev- 
erence for  what  is  ever  high  in  this  universe,  than  meets  us  in 
those  old  Greek  Ballad-monsrers." 


27 

.Samuel  Laixg   (17S0-1S6S). 

It  was  the  work  of  Saimicl  Lain<;-  that  gave  Carlvle  the  mate- 
rial for  this  last-mentioned  book,'  Laing's  translati(5n  of  Heitns- 
kringla  bears  the  date  1S44,  and  although  Mr.  Dascnt's  quaint 
version  of  the  Prose  Edda  preceded  it  bv  two  vears,  The  Sagas 
of  the  Norse  Ki7igs  was  the  "epoch-making"  book.  It  is  true 
that  a  later  version  lias  superseded  it  in  literary  and  scholarlv 
finish,  but  Laing's  work  was  a  pioneer  of  sterling  intrinsic  value, 
and  many  there  be  that  do  it  homage  still.  Laing  had  the  laud- 
able ambition — so  seldom  found  in  these  davs — "to  give  a  plain, 
faithful  translation  into  English  of  the  Heimskringla^  unencum- 
bered with  antiquarian  research,  and  suited  to  the  plain  English 
reader."-  With  this  work,  then,  Icelandic  lore  passes  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  antiquarian  into  the  hands  of  common  readers.  It 
matters  little  that  the  audience  is  even  still  fit  and  few ;  from  this 
time  on  he  that  runs  mav  read. 

For  our  purpose  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  characterize  the 
translation.  Laing  commanded  an  excellent  style,  and  he  was 
enthusiastic  over  his  work.  Indeed,  the  commonest  criticism 
passed  on  the  "  Preliminary  Dissertation"  was  that  the  author's 
zeal  had  run  away  with  his  good  sense.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Laing 
called  the  attention  of  his  readei's  to  the  neglect  of  a  literature 
and  a  history  which  should  be  England's  pride,  as  Anglo-Saxon 
literature  and  history  even  then  were.  The  reviews  of  the  time 
made  it  appear  as  if  another  Battle  of  the  Books  were  impending 
— Anglo-Saxon  versus  Icelandic  ;  a  writer  in  the  English  Re- 
view (Vol.  82,  p.  316),  pro-Saxon  in  his  zeal,  admitting  at  last 
that  "  of  none  of  the  children  of  the  Norse,  whether  Goth  or 
Frank,  Saxon  or  Scandinavian,  have  the  others  any  reason  to  be 
ashamed.  All  have  earned  the  gratitude  and  admiration  of  the 
world,  and  their  combined  or  successive  efforts  ha\'e  made  Eng- 
land and  Europe  what  they  are." 

It  is  refreshing  to  come  upon  new  views  of  Old  Norse  char- 
acter, that  recognize  "  amidst  anarchy  and  bloodshed,  redeem- 
ing features   of  kindliness  and  lictter  feeling  which  tell  of  the 

•  The  Early  Kings  of  Norway  bears  a  later  date — 1875 — than  the  works 
we  are  considering  just  now,  and  it  is  dealt  with  here  only  because  Car- 
lyle's  Heroes  and  Hero -Worship  belongs  in  the  decade  we  are  consid- 
ering. 

2  Chap.  V  of  Preliminary  Dissertation. 


28 

mingled  principles  that  war  within  our  nature  for  the  mastery." 
Laing's  translation  accomplished  this  for  English  readers,  and 
with  the  years  came  a  deeper  knowledge  that  showed  those 
touches  of  tenderness  and  traits  of  beauty  which,  even  in  1S44, 
\\ere  not  perceptible  to  those  readers. 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow  (1S07-1882). 
James  Russell  Lowell  (1S19-1S91). 
The  Story  of  the  Norse  Kings ^  thus  translated  by  an  English- 
man, suggested  to  our  American  poet,  Longfellow,  a  series  of 
lyrics  on  King  Olaf.  The  young  college  professor  that  wrote 
aliout  Frithjofs  Saga  in  the  North  Ajnerican  Reviezv  for 
^^37'  ^^"^"^  bound,  sooner  or  later,  to  come  back  to  the  field  when 
he  found  that  the  American  reading  public  would  listen  to  what- 
ever songs  he  sang  to  them.  Before  1S50,  Longfellow  had 
written  "  The  Challenge  of  Thor,"  a  poem  which  imitated  the 
form  of  Icelandic  verse  and  catches  much  of  its  spirit.  In  iS'^9, 
the  thought  came  to  him  '"that  a  very  good  poem  might  be 
written  on  the  Saga  of  King  Olaf,  who  converted  the  North  to 
Christianity."  Two  years  later  he  completed  the  lyrics  that 
compose  ''The  Musician's  Tale"  in  The  Tales  of  a  Wayside 
Inn,  published  in  1S63,  and  in  this  work  "  The  Challenge  of 
Thor  "  serves  as  a  prelude.  The  pieces  after  this  prelude  are  not 
imitations  of  the  Icelandic  verse,  but  are  like  Tegner's  Frithjofs 
Saga,  in  that  each  new  portion  has  a  meter  of  its  own.  There 
is  not,  either,  a  consistent  effort  to  put  the  flavor  of  the  North  into 
the  poetry,  so  that,  properl}-  speaking,  we  have  here  only  the  re- 
telling of  an  old  tale.  The  ballad  fervor  and  movement  are  often 
perceptible,  though  nowhere  does  the  poet  strike  the  ringing  note 
of  ''The  Skeleton  in  Armor,"  published  in  the  volume  of 
1 84 1. 

Truth  to  tell,  Longfellow's  "  Saga  of  King  Olaf"  is  not  a  re- 
markable work.  One  who  reads  the  few  chapters  in  Carlyle's 
Early  Kings  of  Norway  that  deal  with  Olaf  Tryggvason  gets 
more  of  the  fire  and  spirit  of  the  old  saga  at  every  turning.  The 
poet  chooses  scenes  and  incidents  very  skilfully,  l>ut  for  their  proper 
presentation  a  terseness  is  necessary  that  is  not  reconcilable  with 
frequent  rhymes.  Compare  the  saga  account  with  the  poem's  : 
•'  ^Vhat  is  this  that  has  broken?  "  asked  King  Olaf.  "  Norway 
from  thy  hand.  King,"  answered  Tamberskelver. 


29 

"What  was  that?"  said  Olaf,  standing 

On  the  quarter  deck. 
"  Something  heard  I  hke  the  stranding 

Of  a  shattered  wreck." 
Einar  then,  the  arrow  taking 

From  the  loosened  string, 
Answered,  "That  was  Norway  breaking 

From  thy  hand,  O  King  1  ' ' 

Nevertheless,  Longfellow  is  to  be  thanked  for  acquainting  a 
wide  circle  of  readers  with  the  sterling  saga  literature. 

One  other  American  poet  was  busy  with  the  ancient  Northern 
literature  at  this  time.  James  Russell  Lo\vell  wrote  one  notable 
poem  that  is  Old  Norse  in  subject  and  spirit,  "The  Voyage  to 
Vinland,"  The  third  part  of  the  poem,  "  Gudrida's  Prophecy," 
hints  at  Icelandic  versification,  and  the  short  lines  are  hammer- 
strokes  that  warm  the  reader  to  enthusiasm.  Far  mcjre  of  the 
spirit  of  the  old  literature  is  in  this  short  poem  than  is  to  l)e 
found  in  the  v^^hole  of  Longfellow's  "  Saga  of  King  Olaf."  The 
character  of  Biorn  is  well  drawn,  recalling  Bodli,  of  Morris' 
poem,  in  its  principal  features.  Certainly  there  is  a  reflection 
here  of  that  Old  Norse  conception  of  life  which  gave  to  men's 
deeds  their  due  reward,  and  ^vhich  exalteil  the  power  of  will. 
This  poem   was  begun  in  1S50,  but  was  not  published  till    1S68. 

In  Lowell's  poems  are  to  be  found  many  figiu-es  and  allusions 
pointing  to  his  familiarity  with  Icelandic  song  and  storv.  At 
the  end  of  the  third  strophe  of  the  "  Commemoration  Ode,"  for 
instance.  Truth  is  pictured  as  Brynhild, 

plumed  and  mailed. 
With  sweet,  stern  face  unveiled. 

In  these  borrowings  of  themes  and  allusions,  Lowell  is  at  one 
with  most  of  the  poets  of  the  present  da\-.  It  used  to  be  the 
fashion,  and  is  still,  for  tables  of  contents  in  volumes  of  verse  to 
show  titles  like  these  :  '^  Prometheus  "  ;  "  Iliad  VIII,  ^42-^61  "  : 
"Alectryon."  Present-day  vohimes  are  becoming  more  and 
more  besprinkled  with  titles  like  these  :  "  Balder  the  Beautiful  "  ; 
"The  Death  of  Arnkel,"  etc.-  In  this  fact  alone  is  seen  the 
turn  of  the  tide.  Heroes  and  heroines  in  dramas  and  novels  are 
beginning  to  bear  Old  Norse  names,  even  where  the  setting  is 
not  northern ;  witness  Sidney  Dobell's  Balder^  where  not  even  a 
single  allusion  is  made  to  Icelandic  matters. 


30 

ISIattiiew  Arxold   (1S23-1S88). 

Matthew  Arnold's  strong  sympathy  with  noble  and  virile  litera- 
ture of  whatever  age  or  nation  led  him  in  time  to  Old  Norse,  and 
his  poem  ''Balder  Dead"  is  of  distinct  importance  among  the 
works  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  English  literature.  It  is  an 
addition  of  permanent  value  to  our  poetry,  because  of  its  marked 
originalitv  and  its  high  ethical  tone.  "Mallet,  and  his  version 
of  the  Edda,  is  all  the  poem  is  based  upon,"  says  Arnold.^  It 
is  the  poet's  divinelv  implanted  instinct  that  gathers  from  the  few 
chapters  of  an  old  book  a  knowledge  wonderfully  full  and  deep 
of  the  cosmogony  and  eschatology  of  the  northern  nations  of 
Europe.  "Balder  Dead"  tells  the  familiar  story  of  the  whitest 
of  the  gods,  but  it  also  contains  the  essence  of  Old  Icelandic  re- 
ligion ;  indeed  there  is  no  single  short  work  in  our  language 
which  gives  a  tithe  of  the  information  about  the  North,  its  spirit, 
and  its  philosophy,  which  this  poem  of  Alatthew  Arnold's  sets 
forth.  In  future  davs  a  text-book  of  original  English  poems 
will  be  in  the  hands  of  our  bovs  and  girls  which  will  enable  them 
to  get,  through  the  medium  of  their  own  language,  the  message 
and  the  spirit  of  foreign  literature.  Old  Norse  song  will  need 
no  other  representative  that  Matthew  Arnold's  "  Balder  Dead." 

This  is  an  original  poem.  It  does  not  imitate  the  verse  nor 
the  word  of  the  older  song,  but  the  flavor  of  it  is  here.  Gray 
and  his  imitators  drew  from  the  Icelandic  fountain  "  dreadful 
songs  "  and  many  poets  since  have  heard  no  milder  note.  Matthew 
Arnold's  instincts  were  for  peace  and  the  arts  of  peace,  and  he 
found  in  Balder  a  type  for  the  ennobling  of  our  own  century. 
Balder  says  to  his  brother  who  has  come  to  lament  that  Lok's 
machinations  will  keep  the  best  beloved  of  the  gods  in  Niflheim  : 

For  I  am  long  since  weary  of  your  storm 

Of  carnage,  and  find,  Hermod,  in  your  life 

Something  too  much  of  war  and  broils,  which  make 

Life  one  perpetual  fight,  a  bath  of  blood. 

Mine  eyes  are  dizzy  with  the  arrowy  hail  ; 

Mine  ears  are  stunn'd  with  blows,  and  sick  for  calm. 

Arnold  has  exalted  the  Revelator  of  the  Northern  mythology, 
and  in  magnificent  poetry  sets  forth  his  apocalvptic  vision  : 

1  Letters,  Vol.  I,  p.  55,  dated  Dec.  12,  1S55. 


31 

Unarm' d,  inglorious  ;   I  attend  the  course 
Of  ages,  and  my  late  return  to  light, 
In  times  less  alien  to  a  spirit  mild, 
In  new-recover'd  seats,  the  happier  day. 

Far  to  the  south,  beyond  the  blue,  there  spreads 
Another  Heaven,  the  boundless — no  one  yet 
Hath  reach 'd  it  ;  there  hereafter  shall  arise 
The  second  Asgard,  with  another  name. 

There  re-assembhng  we  shall  see  emerge 
From  the  bright  Ocean  at  our  feet  an  earth 
More  fresh,  more  verdant  than  the  last,  with  fruits 
Self-springing,  and  a  seed  of  man  preserved, 
Who  then  shall  live  in  peace,  as  now  in  war. 

Here  is  the  grandest  message  that  the  Old  Norse  religion  had 
to  give,  and  Matthew  Arnold  concerned  himself  with  that  alone. 
It  is  a  far  cry  from  Regner  Lodbrog  to  this.  There  is  a  fine 
touch  in  the  introduction  of  Regner  into  the  lamentation  of 
Balder.      Arnold  makes  the  old  warrior  sav  of  the  ruder  skalds  : 

But  they  harp  ever  on  one  string,  and  wake 
Remembrance  in  our  souls  of  war  alone. 
Such  as  on  earth  we  valiantly  have  waged. 
And  blood,  and  ringing  blows,  and  violent  death. 
But  when  thou  sangest.  Balder,  thou  didst  strike 
Another  note,  and,  like  a  bird  in  spring. 
Thy  voice  of  joyance  minded  us,  and  youth. 
And  wife,  and  children,  and  our  ancient  home. 

Here  is  a  human  Norseman,  a  figure  not  often  presented  in  the 
versions  of  the  old  stories  that  English  poets  and  romancers  have 
given  us.  Arnold  did  a  good  service  to  Icelandic  literature  when 
he  put  into  Regner's  movith  mild  sentiments  and  a  love  for  home 
and  family.  The  note  is  not  lacking  in  the  ancient  literature, 
but  it  took  Englishmen  three  centuries  to  find  it.  It  was  the 
scholar,  Matthew  Arnold,  who  first  repeated  the  gentler  strain  in 
the  rude  music  of  the  North,  as  it  was  the  scholar,  Thomas  Gray, 
who  first  echoed  the  "dreadful  songs"  of  that  old  psalmody. 
Gray  has  all  the  culture  of  his  age,  when  it  was  still  possible  to 
compass  all  knowledge  in  one  lifetime  ;  Arnold  had  all  the  lit- 
erary culture  of  his  fuller  century  when  multiplied  sciences  force 


32 

a  scholar  to  be  content  with  one  segment  of  human  knowledge. 
The  former  had  music  and  architecture  and  other  sciences  among 
his  accomplishments ;  the  latter  spread  out  in  literature,  as 
"  Sohrab  and  Rustum,"  "  Empedocles  on  Etna,"  "  Tristram  and 
Iseult,"  as  well  as  "  Balder  Dead"  attest.  The  quatrain  prefixed 
to  the  \olume  containing  the  narrative  and  elegiac  poems  be- 
tokens what  jov  Arnold  had  in  his  literary  work,  and  indicates 
why  these  poems  cannot  fail  to  live  : 

What  poets  feel  not,  when  they  make, 

A  pleasure  in  creating. 
The  world  in  its  turn  will  not  take 

Pleasure  in  contemplating. 

Balder  is  the  creation  of  Old  Norse  poetry  that  is  most  popular 
with  contemporary  English  writers,  and  Matthew  Arnold  first 
made  him  so.  As  Bugge  points  out,  no  deed  of  his  is  "  celebrated 
in  song  or  story.  His  personality  only  is  described;  of  his  ac- 
tivity in  life  almost  no  external  trait  is  recorded.  All  the  stress 
is  laid  upon  his  death ;  and,  like  Christ,  Baldr  dies  in  his  youth. 


>5    1 


Sir  George  Webbe  Dasent   (1S20-1S96). 

Among  the  scholars  who  have  labored  to  give  England  the 
benefit  of  a  fuller  and  truer  knowledge  of  Norse  matters,  none 
will  be  remembered  more  gratefvillv  than  Sir  George  Webbe 
Dasent.  Known  to  the  reading  public  most  widely  by  his  trans- 
lations of  the  folk-tales  of  Asbjornsen  and  Moe,  he  has  still  a 
claim  upon  the  attention  of  the  students  of  Icelandic.  As  we 
have  seen,  he  gave  out  a  translation  of  the  Younger  Edda  in 
1842,  and  during  the  half  century  and  more  that  followed  he 
wrote  other  works  of  history  and  literature  connected  with  our 
subject.  Two  saga  translations  were  published  in  1861  and  1866, 
The  Story  of  Burnt  Njal^  and  The  Story  of  Gisli  the  Out- 
law^ which  will  always  rank  high  in  this  class  of  literature. 
Njala  especially  is  an  excellent  piece  of  work,  a  classic  among 
translations.  The  "Prolegomena"  is  rich  in  information,  and 
very  little  of  it  has  been  superseded  by  later  scholarship.  In  1SS7 
and  1894  he  translated  for  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  The  Orkney 
Saga  and  The  Saga  of  Hakon^  the  texts  of  which  Vigfusson 
had  printed  in  the  same  series  some  years  before.      The  interest 

1  Home  of  the  Eddie    Poems,  p.  xxxix.     London,  1899.     David  Nutt. 


33 

of  the  government  in  Icelandic  annals  connected  w  ilh  English 
history  is  indicated  in  these  last  publications,  and  England  is 
fortunate  to  have  had  such  enthusiastic  scholars  as  Vigfusson  and 
Dasent  to  do  the  work.  These  men  had  been  collaborators  on 
the  Cleasby  Dictionary,  and  in  this  work  as  in  all  others  Dasent 
displaved  an  eagerness  to  have  his  countrymen  know  how  sig- 
nificant England's  relationship  to  Iceland  was.  He  was  as  cer- 
tain as  Laing  had  been  before  him  of  the  preeminence  of  this 
literature  among  the  mediaeval  writings.  Like  Laing,  too,  he 
would  have  the  general  reader  turn  to  this  Ixnly  of  work  ••  w  hich 
for  its  beautv  and  richness  is  worthy  of  being  known  to  the 
greatest  possible  number  of  readers."  ^ 

To  mark  the  progress  away  from  the  old  conception  of  unmit- 
igated brutality  these  words  of  Dasent  stand  here  : '  "  The  faults 
of  these  Norsemen  were  the  faults  of  their  time  ;  their  virtues  they 
possessed  in  larger  measure  than  the  rest  of  their  age,  and  thus 
wdien  Christianitv  had  tamed  their  fury,  they  became  the  torch- 
bearers  of  civilization  ;  and  though  the  plowshare  of  Destiny, 
when  it  planted  them  in  Europe,  uprooted  along  its  furrow  many 
a  pretty  flower  of  feeling  in  the  lands  which  felt  the  fury  of  these 
Northern  conquerers,  their  energy  and  endurance  gave  a  lasting 
temper  to  the  West,  and  more  especially  to  England,  wdiich  will 
wear  so  long  as  the  world  wears,  and  at  the  same  time  implanted 
principles  of  freedom  which  shall  never  be  rooted  out.  Such 
results  are  a  compensation  for  many  bygone  sorrows." 

Charles  Kingsley  (i8  19-1875). 

In  1874,  Charles  Kingsley  visited  America  and  delivered  some 
lectures.  Among  these  was  one  entitled  "  The  First  Discovery 
of  America."  This  interests  us  here  because  it  displays  an  appre- 
ciation, if  not  a  deep  knowledge,  of  Icelandic  literature.  In  it 
the  lecturer  commended  to  Longfellow's  attention  a  liallad  sung 
in  the  Faroes,  begging  him  to  translate  it  some  day,  '•  as  none 
but  he  can  translate  it."  "It  is  so  sad,  that  no  tenderness  less 
exquisite  than  his  can  prevent  its  being  painful ;  and  at  least  in 
its  detwue?ne/it^  so  naive,  that  no  purity  less  exquisite  than  his  can 

^  Introduction  to  the  Cleasbj  Dictionary. 
2  Oxford  Essays,  1858,  p.  214. 


34 

prevent  its  being  dreadful.'"  Later  in  the  lecture  he  commends 
to  his  hearers  the  Hehnskringla  of  Snorri  Sturluson,  the 
"  Homer  of  the  North."  - 

Speaking  of  the  elements  that  mingled  to  produce  the  British 
character,  Kingsley  says:  "In  manners  as  well  as  in  religion, 
the  Norse  were  humanized  and  civilized  by  their  contact  with 
the  Celts,  both  in  Scotland  and  in  Ireland.  Both  peoples  had 
valor,  intellect,  imagination  :  but  the  Celt  had  that  which  the 
burlv,  angular  Norse  character,  however  deep  and  stately,  and 
however  humorous,  \vanted ;  namelv,  music  of  nature,  tender- 
ness, grace,  rapidity,  playfulness ;  just  the  qualities,  combining 
with  the  Scandinavian  (and  in  Scotland  with  the  Angle)  elements 
of  character  wdiich  have  produced,  in  Ireland  and  in  Scotland, 
two  schools  of  lyric  poetrv  second  to  none  in  the  world."  ^  Over 
the  page,  Kingsley  has  this  to  say  :  "  For  thev  were  a  sad  people, 
those  old  Norse  forefathers  of  ours."  *  Humorous  and  sad  are 
not  inconsistent  words  in  these  sentences ;  the  Norseman  had  a 
sense  of  the  ludicrous,  and  could  jest  grimlv  in  the  face  of  death. 
Of  the  sadness  of  his  life,  no  one  needs  to  be  told  who  has  read 
a  saga  or  two.  Kingsley  says  :  "  There  is,  in  the  old  sagas, 
none  of  that  enjoyment  of  life  which  shines  out  everywhere  in 
Greek  poetrv,  even  through  its  deepest  tragedies.  Not  in  com- 
—L.  placency  with  Nature's  beauty,  but  in  the  fierce  struggle  with 
her  wrath,  does  the  Norseman  feel  pleasure."  ^ 

This  lecture  shows  a  deeper  acquaintance  with  Old  Norse  lit- 
erature than  Kingsley  was  willing  to  acknowledge.  Not  only 
are  the  stories  well  chosen  which  he  uses  throughout,  but  the 
intuitions  are  sound,  and  the  inferences  based  upon  them.  He 
anticipated  the  work  of  this  investigation  in  the  last  words  of  the 
address.  He  has  been  telling  the  fine  story  of  Thormod  at 
Sticklestead  : 

"  I  shall  not  insvilt  }our  intelligence  by  any  comment  or  even 
epithet  of  my  own.  I  shall  but  ask  you.  Was  not  this  man  your 
kinsman  ?     Does  not  the  story  sound,  allowing  for  all  change  of 

1  Lectures  delivered  in  America  in  1874,  by  Charles  Kingsley.  London, 
1875.     p.  71. 

2  P.  78. 

3  P.  89. 
"  P-  90. 

5  P.    91. 


35 

manners  as  well  as  of  time  and  place,  like  a  scene  out  of  vour 
own  Bret  Harte  or  Colonel  John  Hay's  writings ;  a  scene  of  the 
dry  humor,  the  rough  heroism  of  your  own  far  West?  Yes,  as 
long  as  you  have  your  Je7n  Bhidsos  and  Tom  Flyn7ts  of  I  ir- 
ginia  Cit\\  the  old  Norse  blood  is  surely  not  extinct,  the  old 
Norse  spirit  is  not  dead." ' 

Edmund  Gosse   (1S49-         ). 

Among  contemporary  English  poets  who  ha\e  taught  the  world 
of  readers  that  things  Norse  are  worthy  of  attention,  is  Edmund 
Gosse.  He  has  been  more  intimately  connected  with  the  popu- 
larization of  modern  Norwegian  literature,  notably  of  Ibsen,  Init 
he  has  also  found  in  Old  Norse  story  themes  for  poetic  treatment. 
We  mention  "  The  Death  of  Arnkel,"  found  in  the  volume 
Firdatisi  hi  Exile^  more  because  it  shows  that  our  poets  are 
turning  to  the  gcsta  islandicoruin  for  themes,  than  because  it  is  a 
remarkable  poem.  More  pretentious  is  King  Erik^  a  Tragedy^ 
London,  1S76.  Here  is  a  noble  drama  which  displays  an  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  the  literature  tliat  gave  it  its  themes  and 
inspiration.  The  author  dedicates  it  to  Robert  Browning,  call- 
ing it : 

.    .    .   this  lyric  symbol  of  my  labour, 
This  antique  light  that  led  my  dreams  so  long, 
This  battered  hull  of  a  barbaric  tabor, 
Beaten  to  runic  song. 

I  have  often  thought  that  fate  was  very  unkind  to  keep  Ibow  n- 
ing  so  persistently  in  the  south  of  Europe,  when,  in  Iceland  and 
Norway,  were  mines  that  he  could  have  worked  in  to  such  su- 
preme advantage.  To  be  sure  his  method  clashes  with  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  Old  Norse  manner,  but  from  him  we  should  have 
had  men  and  women  sujDerb  in  stature  and  \  irility.  and  perhaps 
the  Arctic  influence  woidd  lia\  e  killed  the  troul)lesome  tropicality 
of  his  language. 

This  drama  by  Gosse  is  not  strictly  Icelandic  in  motive. 
Jealousy  was  not  the  passion  to  loosen  the  tongue  of  the  saga- 
man,  and  in  so  far  as  that  is  the  theme  of  "King  Erik,"  the  play 
is  not  Old  Norse  in  origin.  Clmstian  material,  too,  has  been 
introduced  that   gives  a  modern  tinge  to  the  drama,  but   there   is 

1  P.  96. 


36 

enoueh  of  the  genuine  saga  spirit  to  warrant  attention  to  it  here. 
Something  more  than  the  names  is  Icelandic.  Here  is  a  woman, 
Botilda,  with  strength  of  character  enough  to  recall  a  Brynhild 
or  a  Bergthora.  Gisli  is  the  foster-brother  that  takes  up  the 
blood-feud  for  Grimur.  Adalbjorg  and  Svanhilda  are  the 
whisperers  of  slander  and  the  workers  of  ill.  Marcus  is  the 
skald  who  is  making  a  poem  about  the  king.  Here  are  customs 
and  beliefs  distinctly  Norse  : 

I  loved  him  from  the  first, 

And  so  the  second  midnight  to  the  cliff 

We  went.      I  mind  me  how  the  round  moon  rose, 

And  how  a  great  whale  in  the  offing  plunged, 

Dark  on  the  golden  circle.     There  we  cut 

A  space  of  turf,  and  lifted  it,  and  ran 

Our  knife-points  sharp  into  our  arms,  and  drew 

Blood  that  dripped  into  the  warm  mould  and  mixed. 

So  there  under  the  turf  our  plighted  faith 

Starts  in  the  dew  of  grasses. 

(Act.  IV,  Sc.  11.) 

But  all  day  long  I  hear  amid  the  crowds, 


A  voice  that  murmurs  in  a  monotone, 

Strange,  warning  words  that  scarcely  miss  the  ear, 

Yet  miss  it  altogether. 

Botilda. 

Oh  1     God  grant, 
You  be  not  fey,  nor  truly  near  your  end  I 

(Act.  IV,  Sc.  III.) 

Although  this  work  is  dramatic  in  form,  it  is  not  so  in  spirit. 
The  true  dramatist  would  have  put  such  an  incident  as  the  swear- 
ing of  brotherhood  into  a  scene,  instead  of  into  a  speech.  This 
effort  is,  however,  the  nearest  approach  to  a  drama  in  English 
founded  on  saga  material.  It  is  curious  that  our  poets  have  in- 
clined to  every  form  but  the  drama  in  reproducing  Old  Xorse 
literature.  It  is  not  that  saga-stuff  is  not  dramatic  in  possibilities. 
Ewald  and  Oehlenschliiger  have  used  this  material  to  excellent 
effect  in  Danish  dramas.  Had  the  sagas  been  accessible  to 
Englishmen  in  Shakespeare's  time,  we  should  certainly  have  had 
dramas  of  Icelandic  life. 


IV. 

BY   THE    HAND    OF   THE   MASTER. 

Time  has  brought  us  to  tlie  man  whose  work  in  tliis  tk-kl  needs 
no  apology.  The  writer  whom  we  consider  next  contrilnited 
ahnost  as  much  material  to  the  English  treasury  of  Northern  gold 
as  did  all  the  writers  we  have  so  far  considered.  Were  it  not 
for  William  Morris,  the  examination  that  we  are  making  would 
not  not  be  \v<jrth  while.  The  name  literatin-e^  in  its  narrow 
sense,  belongs  to  only  a  few  of  the  writings  that  we  have  ex- 
amined up  to  this  point,  but  what  we  are  now  to  inspect  deserves 
that  title  without  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  For  that  reason  we  set 
in  a  separate  chapter  the  examination  of  Morris'  Old  Norse 
adaptations  and  creations. 

William  Morris  (1834-1S96). 

The  biographer  of  William  Morris  fixes  1S6S  as  the  beginning 
of  the  poet's  Icelandic  stories,^  Eirikr  Magnusson,  an  Icelander, 
was  his  guide,  and  the  pupil  made  rapid  progress.  Dasent's 
work  had  drawn  Alorris'  attention  to  the  sagas,  and  within  a  few 
months  most  of  the  sagas  had  been  read  in  the  original.  ^Vlthough 
The  Saga  of  Gunnlang  Worni-to7igiic  was  published  in  the 
Fortnightly  Rev{e~i\  for  January.  1S69.  the  Grettis  Saga,  oi 
April,  was  the  first  published  book  on  an  Okl  Norse  subject. 
The  next  year  gave  the  Volsunga  Saga.  In  1S71,  Morris  made 
a  journey  through  Iceland,  the  fruits  of  which  were  afterwards 
seen  in  manv  a  noble  wx)rk.  In  1S75,  Three  Northern  Love 
Stories  wa.^  published,  and,  in  1877,  The  Story  of  Sigurd  the 
Volsung  and  the  Fall  of  the  Nibhmgs.  ^Slore  than  ten  years 
passed  before  he  turned  again  to  Icelandic  work,  the  Romances  of 
the  years  of  1SS9  to  1S96  showing  signs  of  it.  and  the  translations  in 
the  Saga  Library,  "Howard  the  Halt,"  "The  Banded  Men." 
Eyrbyggja  and   Heimskringla   of    1891-95.      These    contrilni- 

'The  Life  of  William  Morris,  by  J.  W.  Mackail.  London,  New  York, 
Bombay.     Vol.  I,  p.  200. 

37 


^ 


38 

tions  to  the  subject  of  our  examination  are  no  less  valuable  than 
voluminous,  and  we  make  no  excuses  for  an  extended  considera- 
tion of  them.     They  deserve  a   wider  public  than  they  have  yet 

attained. 

I. 

The  Story  of  Grettir  the  Strong  is  the  title  of  Morris  and 
Magnusson's  version  of  the  Grettis  Saga.  The  version  im- 
presses the  reader  as  one  made  with  loving  care  by  artistic  hands. 
Certainly  English  readers  will  read  no  other  translation  of  this 
work,  for  this  one  is  satisfactory  as  a  version  and  as  an  art- work. 
English  readers  will  here  get  all  the  flavor  of  the  original  that  it 
is  possible  to  get  in  a  translation,  and  those  who  can  read  Ice- 
landic if  put  to  it.  will  prefer  to  get  Grettia  through  Morris 
and  Mag-nusson.  All  the  essentials  are  here,  if  not  all  the  nu- 
ances. 

The  reader  unfamiliar  with  sagas  will  need  a  litde  patience 
with  the  genealogies  that  crop  out  in  every  chapter.  The  saga- 
man  has  a  squirrel-like  agility  in  climbing  family  trees,  and  he  is 
well  acquainted  with  their  interlocking  branches.  There  are 
chapters  in  the  Grettis  Saga  where  this  vanity  runs  riot,  and 
makes  us  suspect  that  Iceland  differed  little  from  a  country  town 
of  to-day  in  its  love  for  gossip  about  the  family  of  neighboi's 
whose  names  happen  to  come  into  the  conversation.  If  the 
reader  will  persevere  through  the  early  chapters,  until  Grettir  com- 
mands exclusive  attention,  he  will  come  to  a  drama  which  has 
not  manv  peers  in  literature.  The  outlaw  kills  a  man  in  every 
other  chapter,  but  this  record  is  no  vulgar  list  of  brutal  fights. 
Not  inhuman  nature,  luit  human  nature  is  here  shown,  human 
nature  struggling  with  unrelenting  fate,  making  a  grand  fight, 
and  coming  to  its  end  because  it  must,  but  without  ignominy. 
How  fine  a  touch  it  is  that  refuses  to  the  outlaw's  murderer  the 
price  set  upon  Grettir's  head,  because  the  getting  of  it  was 
through  a  "  nithings-deed,"  the  murder  of  a  dying  man!  Wil- 
liam Morris  was  most  felicitous  in  envoys  and  dedicating  poems, 
and  in  the  sonnet  prefixed  to  this  translation  he  was  particularly 
happy.  The  first  eight  lines  describe  the  hero  of  the  saga — the 
last  six  lines  the  significance  of  this  literary  creation  : 


39 


A  life  scarce  worth  the  living,  a  po6i  fame 
Scarce  worth  the  winning,  in  a  wretched  land. 
Where  fear  and  j^ain  go  upon  either  hand, 
As  toward  the  end  men  fare  without  an  aim 
Unto  the  dull  grey  dark  from  whence  they  came  : 
Let  them  alone,  the  unshadowed  sheer  rocks  stand 
Over  the  twilight  graves  of  that  poor  band. 
Who  count  so  little  in  the  great  world's  game  I 

Nay,  with  the  dead  I  deal  not  ;  this  man  lives. 
And  that  which  carried  him  through  good  and  ill, 
Stern  against  fate  while  his  voice  echoed  still 
From  rock  to  rock,  now  he  lies  silent,  strives 
With  wasting  time,  and  through  its  long  lapse  gives 
Another  friend  to  me,  life's  void  to  fill. 


In  the  three  volumes  of  The  Earthly  Paradise,  pul)lished  bv 
William  Morris  in  186S-1S70,  there  are  three  poems  which  hail 
from  Old  Norse  originals.  They  are  "  The  Land  East  of  the 
Sun  and  West  of  the  Moon,"  and  •'  The  Lovers  of  Gudrini."  in 
Vol.  II,  and  •'  The  Fostering  of  Aslaug,"  in  Vol.  III.  Of  these 
"The  Lovers  of  Gudrun  "  forms  a  class  b\-  itself;  it  is  a  poem  / 
to  be  reckoned  ^\■ith  when  the  dozen  greatest  poems  of  the  cen- 
tury are  listed.  The  late  Laureate  may  have  ecjualled  it  in  the 
best  of  the  Idvlls  of  the  King,  but  he  never  excelled  it.  Let  us 
look  at  it  in  detail. 

First,  be  it  said  that  '•  The  Lovers  of  (jutlrun  "'  overtops  all 
the  other  poems  in  The  Earthly  Paradise.  It  would  be  pos- 
sible to  pi"ove  that  Morris  was  at  his  best  \\  ben  he  worked  w  ith 
Old  Norse  material,  but  that  task  shall  not  detain  us  now.  It  is 
enough  to  note  that  the  •'  Prologue  "  to  The  Earthly  Paradise^ 
called  "  The  Wanderers,"  makes  the  leader  of  these  wanderers, 
who  turn  storv-tellers  when  thev  reach  the  cit\-  In"  ^  the  borders 
of  the  Grecian  sea,"  a  Norseman.  Born  in  Byzantium  of  a 
Greek  mother,  he  claimed  Norwav  as  his  home,  and  on  his 
father's  death  returned  to  his  kin.  His  speech  to  the  Elder  of 
the  City  reveals  a  touching  lovaltv  to  his  father's  home  and  tradi- 
tions : 

But  when  I  reached  one  dying  autumn-tide 

My  uncle's  dwelling  near  the  forest-side. 

And  saw  the  land  so  scanty  and  so  bare, 


40 

And  all  the  hSrd  things  men  contend  with  there, 
A  little  and  unworthy  land  it  seemed, 
And  yet  the  more  of  Asagard  I  dreamed, 
And  worthier  seemed  the  ancient  faith  of  praise. 

Here  is  the  man,  William  Morris,  in  perfect  miniature.  Mod- 
ern life  and  training  had  given  him  a  speech  and  aspect  quite 
suave  and  cultured,  but  the  blood  that  flowed  in  his  veins  w^as 
red,  and  the  tincture  of  iron  \\*as  in  it.  In  religion,  in  art,  in 
poetry,  in  economics,  he  loved  the  past  better  than  the  present, 
though  he  was  never  unconscious  of  '' our  glorious  gains."  In 
all  departments  of  thought  the  scanty,  the  bare,  the  hard,  the  un- 
worthy, drew  first  his  attention  and  then  his  love  and  enthusiastic 
praise.  And  so  perhaps  it  is  explained  that  of  all  the  poems  in 
The  Earthly  Paradise^  the  one  indited  first  in  the  scarred  and 
dreadful  land  where  neither  wheat  nor  wine  is  at  home,  shall  be 
the  finest  in  this  latter-day  retelling. 

The  first  seventy  years  of  the  thirteenth  century  were  the  blos- 
soming time  of  the  historic  saga  in  Iceland,  and  those  writings 
that  record  the  doings  of  the  families  of  the  land  form,  with  the 
old  songs  and  the  best  of  the  kingly  sagas,  the  flower  of  North- 
ern literature.  These  family  records  never  extend  over  more 
than  one  generation,  and  sometimes  they  deal  with  but  a  few 
years.  They  are  half-wav  between  romance  and  history,  with 
the  balance  oftenest  in  favor  of  truth.  In  this  group  are  found 
Eglls  Saga^  known  at  second  hand  to  Warton,  the  Eyrbyggja 
Saga^  translated  by  Walter  Scott,  and  the  Laxdcela  Saga. 
It  is  the  Laxda;Ia  Saga  that  gives  the  story  told  by  Morris  in 
"  The  Lovers  of  Gudrun."  Among  sagas  it  is  famous  for  its 
fine  portrayal  of  character. 

The  saga  and  the  poem  tell  the  stor\-  of  two  neighboring 
farms,  Herdholt  and  Bathsted,  whose  sons  and  daughters  work 
out  a  dire  tragedy.  Kiartan  and  Bodli  are  the  son  and  foster-son 
of  the  first  house,  and  Gudrun  is  the  daughter  of  the  second. 
These  are  the  principal  personages  in  the  drama,  though  the 
list  of  the  other  draffiat/s  perso/?a;  h  a  long  one.  Not  only  in 
the  name  of  its  heroine  does  the  story  suggest  the  Nibehingen- 
lied.  The  machinery  of  the  Norse  stories  resembles  the  German 
story's  in  many  of  its  parts.  In  this  version  of  Morris,  the  main 
features  of  the  saga  are  kept,  and  distracting  details  are  properly 


41 

subordinated  to  the  principal  interest.  Throuorh  the  nineteen 
divisions  of  this  story  the  interest  nKJves  rapidly,  and  wonder  as 
to  the  issue  is  never  lost.  As  a  story-teller,  Morris  is  distinctly 
powerful  in  this  poem,  and  all  the  qualities  that  endear  the  story- 
teller to  us  are  here  f(jund  joined  to  ukuu  that  make  the  poet  a 
favorite  with  us.  There  arc  no  lyrics  in  the  poem — the  oritrinal 
saga  was  without  the  song-snatches  that  are  often  found  in  sagas — 
but  there  are  dramatic  scenes  that  recall  the  pow'er  of  the  Master- 
poet.  Least  of  all  the  poems  in  the  Earthly  Paradise  does 
"The  Lovers  of  Gudrun  "  show  the  Chaucerian  influence,  and 
the  reader  must  be  captious  indeed  who  complains  of  the  length 
of  this  story. 

To  the  unenlightened  reader  this  poem  reveals  no  traits  that  are 
un-English.  What  there  is  of  Old  Norse  flavor  here  is  purely 
spiritual.  The  original  story  being  in  prose,  no  attempt  could 
be  made  to  keep  original  characteristics  in  verse-form.  So  "  The 
Lovers  of  Gudrun"  can  stand  on  its  own  merits  as  an  English 
poem ;  no  excuses  need  be  made  for  it  on  the  plea  that  it  is  a 
translation. 

Local  color  is  hot  laid  on  the  can\  as  after  the  figures  have  been 
painted,  but  all  the  tints  in  the  persons  and  the  things  are  grandly 
Norse.  This  story  is  a  true  romance,  in  that  the  scene  is  far 
removed  from  the  present  day,  and  the  atmosphere  is  very  different 
from  our  own.  This  story  is  a  true  picture  of  life,  in  that  it  sets 
forth  the  doings  of  men  and  women  in  the  power  of  the  master 
passion.  And  so  for  the  purposes  of  literature  this  poem  is  not 
Norse,  or  rather,  it  is  more  than  Norse,  it  is  universal.  Now 
and  then,  to  be  sure,  the  displaced  Norse  ideals  are  set  forth  in 
the  poem,  but  in  such  wise  that  we  almost  regret  that  the  old 
order  has  passed  away.  The  Wanderer  who  tells  the  tale  as- 
sures his  listeners  of  the  truth  of  it  in  these  last  words  of  the  in- 
terlude between  "The  Story  of  Rhodope  "  and  ••  The  Lovers  of 

Gudrun  "  : 

Know  withal  that  we 

Have  ever  deemed  this  tale  as  true  to  be, 

As  though  those  very  Dwellers  in  Laxdale, 

Risen  from  the  dead  had  told  us  their  own  tale  ; 

Who  for  the  rest  while  yet  they  dwelt  on  earth 

Wearied  no  God  with  prayers  for  more  of  mirth 

Than  dying  men  have  ;  nor  were  ill-content 

Because  no  God  beside  their  sorrow  went 


42 

Turning  to  flowery  sward  the  rock-strewn  way, 
Weakness  to  strength,  or  darkness  into  day. 
Therefore,  no  marvels  hath  my  tale  to  tell, 
But  deals  with  such  things  as  men  know  too  well  ; 
All  that  I  have  herein  your  hearts  to  move, 
Is  but  the  seed  and  fruit  of  bitter  love. 

It  is  aside  from  our  purpose  to  tell  this  story  here.  The  more 
we  study  this  inarvelous  w^ork,  the  more  it  is  impressed  upon  us 
that  in  the  reign  of  love  all  men  and  all  literatures  are  one.  To 
the  Englishman  this  description  of  an  Iceland  maiden  is  no 
stranger  than  it  was  to  the  men  who  sat  about  the  spluttering  fire 
in  the  Icelander's  hall.  It  is  the  form  of  Gudrun  that  is  here 
described  : 

That  spring  was  she  just  come  to  her  full  height. 
Low-bosomed  yet  she  was,  and  slim  and  light, 
Yet  scarce  might  she  grow  fairer  from  that  day  ; 
Gold  were  the  locks  wherewith  the  wind  did  play. 
Finer  than  silk,  waved  softly  like  the  sea 
After  a  three  days'  calm,  and  to  her  knee 
Wellnigh  they  reached  ;  fair  were  the  white  hands  laid 
Upon  the  door  posts  where  the  dragons  played  ; 
Her  brow  was  smooth  now,  and  a  smile  began 
To  cross  her  delicate  mouth,  the  snare  of  man. 

(^Earthly  Paradise,  Vol.  II,  p.  247.) 
Not  less  accustomed  are  we  to  such  heroes  as  Kiartan  : 

And  now  in  every  mouth  was  Kiartan' s  name. 
And  daily  now  must  Gudrun's  dull  ears  bear 
Tales  of  the  prowess  of  his  youth  to  hear. 
While  in  his  cairn  forgotten  lay  her  love. 
Yox  this  man,  said  they,  all  men's  hearts  did  move, 
Nor  yet  might  envy  cling  to  such  an  one, 
So  far  beyond  all  dwellers  'neath  the  sun  ; 
Great  was  he,  yet  so  fair  of  face  and  limb 
That  all  folk  wondered  much,  beholding  him. 
How  such  a  man  could  be  ;   no  fear  he  knew, 
And  all  in  manly  deeds  he  could  outdo  ; 
Fleet-foot,  a  swimmer  strong,  an  archer  good. 
Keen-eyed  to  know  the  dark  waves'  changing  mood  ; 
Sure  on  the  crag,  and  with  the  sword  so  skilled, 
That  when  he  played  therewith  the  air  seemed  filled 


43 

With  light  of  gleaming  blades  ;  therewith  was  he 

Of  noble  speech,  though  says  not  certainly 

My  tale,  that  aught  of  his  he  left  behind 

With  rhyme  and  measure  deftly  intertwined. 

(P.  266.) 

The  Old  Norse  touch  here  is  in  the  hist  three  lines  which  inti- 
mate that  the  warrior  was  often  a  bard;  but  be  it  remembered 
that  the  Elizabethan  warrior  could  turn  a  sonnet,  too. 

We  have  said  that  the  Laxdcvla  Saga  is  famous  ior  its  por- 
trayal of  character.  This  English  version  falls  ncjt  at  all  below 
the  original  in  this  ciuality.  The  lines  already  quoted  sIkav 
Gudrun  and  Kiartan  as  to  exterior.  But  this  is  a  drama  of  flesh 
and  blood  creations,  and  they  are  men  and  women  that  move 
through  it,  not  puppets.  Souls  are  laid  bare  here,  in  quivering, 
pulsating  agonv.  The  tremendous  figure  of  this  story  is  not 
Kiartan,  nor  Gudrun,  nor  Refna,  but  Bodli,  and  certainly  Eng- 
lish narrative  poetrv  has  no  second  creation  like  to  him.  The 
mind  reverts  to  vShakespeare  to  find  fit  companionship  for  Bodli 
in  poetrv,  and  to  George  Eliot  and  Thomas  Hardy  in  pro-^e. 
The  suggestion  of  vShakespearean  tjualities  in  George  Eliot  has 
been  made  by  several  great  critics,  among  them  Edmond  Scherer  :  ' 
in  Hardy  and  Morris,  here,  we  find  the  same  soul-searching 
powers.  These  writers  have  created  sufferers  of  titanic  great- 
ness, and  in  the  presence  of  their  tragedies  we  are  duml). 

An  English  artist  has  made  Napoleon's  voyage  on  H.  M.  S. 
Bellerophon  to  his  prison-isle  a  picture  that  the  memory  refuses 
to  forget.  The  picture  of  Bodli  as  he  sails  back  to  Iceland, 
which,  though  his  home,  is  to  be  his  prison  and  bis  dcalb.  is  no 
less  impressive  : 

Fair  goes  the  ship  that  beareth  out  Christ's  truth 
Mingled  of  hope,  of  sorrow,  and  of  ruth, 
And  on  the  prow  Bodli  the  Christian  stands. 
Sunk  deep  in  thought  of  all  the  many  lands 
The  world  holds,  and  the  folk  that  dwell  therein. 
And  wondering  why  that  grief  and  rage  and  sin 
Was  ever  wrought  ;  but  wondering  most  of  all 
Why  such  wild  passion  on  his  heart  should  fall. 

(P.  294.) 

1  Edmond  Scherer.     Essays  on  English  Literature,  p.  309. 


44 

Here  we  have  the  poet's  conception — and  the  sagaman's — of 
BodH — a  man  in  the  grip  of  terrible  Fate,  who  can  no  more 
swerve  from  the  paths  she  marks  out  for  him  than  he  can  add  a 
cubit  to  his  stature.  The  Greek  tragedy  embodies  this  idea,  and 
r^Old  Norse  Hterature  is  full  of  it.  Thomas  Hardy  gives  it  later 
in  his  contemporarv  novels.  We  sympathize  with  Bodli's  fate 
because  his  agony  is  so  terrible,  and  we  call  him  the  most  strik- 
ing figure  in  this  storv.  But  the  others  suffer,  too,  Gudrun, 
Kiartan,  Refna  ;  they  make  a  stand  against  their  woe,  and  utter 
brave  words  in  the  face  of  it.  Only  Bodli  floats  downward  with 
the  tide,  unresisting.     Guest  prophesies  bitter  things  for  Gudrun, 

but  adds  : 

Be  merry  yet  !  these  things  shall  not  be  all 

That  unto  thee  in  this  thy  life  shall  fall. 

(P.  254.) 

And  Gudrun  takes  heart.  When  Thurid  tells  her  brother 
Kiartan  that  Gudrun  has  married  another,  his  joy  is  shivered 
into  atoms  before  him.     But  he  can  say,  even  then  : 

Now  is  this  world  clean  changed  for  me 
In  this  last  minute,  yet  indeed  I  see 
'  That  still  it  will  go  on  for  all  my  pain  ; 

Come  then,  my  sister,  let  us  back  again  ; 
1  must  meet  folk,  and  face  the  life  beyond, 
And,  as  I  may,  walk  'neath  the  dreadful  bond 
Of  ugly  pain — such  men  our  fathers  v/ere, 
Not  lightly  bowed  by  any  weight  of  care. 

And  Kiartan  does  his  work  in  the  world.  Poor  Refna,  when 
she  has  married  Kiartan  hears  women  talking  of  the  love  that 
still  is  between  Gudrun  and  Kiartan.  She  goes  to  Kiartan  with 
the  story,  beginning  with  words  whose  pathos  must  conquer  the 
most  stoical  of  readers  : 

Indeed  of  all  thy  grief  I  knew. 
But  deemed  if  still  thou  saw'st  me  kind  and  true, 
Not  asking  too  much,  yet  not  failing  aught 
To  show  that  not  far  off  need  love  be  sought. 
If  thou  shouldst  need  love — if  thou  sawest  all  this. 
Thou  wouldst  not  grudge  to  show  me  what  a  bliss 
Thy  whole  love  was,  by  giving  unto  me 
As  unto  one  who  loved  thee  silently. 


45 

Now  and  again  the  broken  crumbs  thereof: 

Alas  !  I,  having  then  no  part  in  love, 

Knew  not  ho^-  naught,  naught  can  allay  the  soul 

Of  that  sad  thirst,  but  love  untouched  and  whole  I 

Kinder  than  e'er  I  durst  have  hoped  thou  art, 

Forgive  me  then,  that  yet  my  craving  heart 

Is  so  unsatisfied  ;    I  know  that  thou 

Art  fain  to  dream  that  I  am  happy  now, 

And  for  that  seeming  ever  do  I  strive  ; 

Thy  half-love,  dearest,  keeps  me  still  alive 

To  love  thee  ;  and  I  l^less  it — but  at  whiles, — 

(!'•  343.) 

And  thus  she  gains  strength  to  live  her  life. 

Here,  then,  in  Bodli,  is  another  of  the  great  tragic  figures  in 
literature — a  sick  man.  There  are  many  of  them,  even  in  the 
highest  rank  of  literary  creations,  Hamlet,  Lear,  Othello,  Mac- 
beth !  Wrong-headed,  defective  as  they  arc,  we  would  not  have 
them  otherwise.  The  pearl  of  greatest  price  is  the  residt  of  an^ 
abnormal  or  morbid  process. 

Bodli  comes  to  tis  from  Icelandic  literature,  and  in  that  fact  we 
note  the  solidarity  of  poetic  geniuses.  Xot  only  is  the  great 
figure  of  Bodli  proof  of  this  solidaritv,  but  many  other  features 
of  this  poem  prove  it.  "  Lively  feeling  for  a  situation  and  poyver 
to  express  it  constitute  the  poet,"  said  Goethe.  There  are  dra- 
matic situations  in  '•'■The  Lovers  of  Gudrun "  which  hold  the 
reader  in  a  breathless  state  till  the  last  word  is  said,  and  then 
leave  him  marveling  at  the  imagination  that  could  conceive  the 
scene,  and  the  power  that  could  express  it.  There  are  gentler 
scenes,  too,  in  the  poem,  where  l)eauty  and  grace  are  conceived 
as  fair  as  ever  poet  dreamed,  and  the  workmanship  is  thoroughly 
adequate.  As  an  example  of  the  first,  take  the  scene  of  Bodli's 
mourning  over  Kiartan's  dead  body.  It  is  here  that  we  get  that 
knowledge  of  Bodli's  woe  that  robs  us  of  a  cause  against  him. 
What  agony  is  that  which  can  speak  thus  over  the  body  of  the 

dead  rival  ! 

.    .    .   Didst  thou  quite 

Know  all  the  value  of  that  dear  delight 

As  I  did  ?     Kiartan,  she  is  changed  to  thee  ; 

Yea,  and  since  hope  is  dead  changed  too  to  me, 

What  shall  we  do,  if,  each  of  each  forgiven, 

We  three  shall  meet  at  last  in  that  fair  heaven 


46 

The  new  faith  tells  of?     Thee  and  God  I  pray 
Impute  it  not  for  sin  to  me  to-day, 
If  no  thought  I  can  shape  thereof  btit  this  : 
O  friend,  O  friend,  when  thee  I  meet  in  bliss, 
Wilt  thou  not  give  my  love  Gudrun  to  me, 
Since  now  indeed  thine  eyes  made  clear  can  see 
That  I  of  all  the  world  must  love  her  most  ? 

(P.  368.) 
Examples  of  the  gentler  scenes  are  scattered  lavishly  through- 
out the  poem  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate. 

One  other  sign  that  the  Icelandic  sagaman's  art  was  kin  to  the 
English   poet's.      The  last  line  of   this   poem  is   given   thus  by 

Morris  : 

1  did  the  worst  to  him  I  loved  the  most. 

These  are  the  very  words  of  Gudrun  in  the  saga,  and  summing 
up  as  they  do  her  opinion  of  Kiartan,  they  stand  as  a  model  of 
that  compression  which  is  so  admired  in  our  poetry.  Many  such 
multujn  in  parvo  lines  are  found  in  Morris'  poem,  and  at  times 
they  have  a  beauty  that  is  marvelous.  Joined  with  this  quality 
is  the  special  merit  of  Morris — picturesqueness,  and  so  the  reader 
often  feels,  when  he  has  finished  a  book  by  Morris,  like  the  Cook 
tourist  after  he  has  "done"  a  country  of  Europe — it  must  be 
done  again  and  again  to  give  it  its  clue. 

Of  the  other  two  Old  Norse  poems  in  T/ic  Earthly  Paradise 
not  much  need  be  said.  "  The  Land  East  of  the  Sun  and  West 
of  the  Moon"  is  a  fairv  tale,  in  the  strain  of  Morris'  prose  ro- 
mances. It  was  suggested  bv  Thorpe's  T'lde-tidc  Stories^  the 
tale  coming  from  the  Volundar  Saga.  There  is  a  witchery 
about  it  that  makes  it  pleasant  reading  in  a  dreamy  hour,  but  ex- 
cept the  names  and  a  few  scenes  about  the  farmstead,  thei'e  is 
nothing  Icelandic  about  it.  The  virile  element  of  the  best  Ice- 
landic literature  is  wanting  here,  and  the  hero's  excuse  for  leaving 
weapons  at  home  when  he  goes  to  his  watch  is  not  at  all  natural  : 

Withal  I  shall  not  see 
Men-folk  belike,  but  faerie, 
And  all  the  arms  within  the  seas 
Should  help  me  naught  to  deal  with  these  ; 
Rather  of  such  love  were  I  fain 
As  fell  to  Sigurd  Fafnir's-bane 
When  of  the  dragon's  heart  he  ate. 
(Vol.  II,  p.  33.) 


47 

This  passage  is  nominally  in  the  same  meter  as  the  opening 
lines  of  the  poem  : 

In  this  your  land  there  once  did  dwell 
A  certain  carle  who  lived  full  well, 
And  lacked  few  things  to  make  him  glad  ; 
And  three  fair  sons  this  goodman  had. 

According   to   old  time  English   prosody,  it   is  the  same,  too,  as 
the  meter  of  Scott's  Marmion  ! 

In  the  passages  quoted  from  "  The  Lovers  of  Gudrun  "  we  see 
a  measure  called  the  same  as  that  of  Pope's  Essay  on  Man.' 
Not  seldom  in  "The  Lovers"  do  we  forget  that  the  lines  are 
rhymed  in  twos;  indeed,  often  we  do  not  note  the  rhyme  at  all. 
We  are  sometimes  tempted  to  think  that  in  this  piece,  if  not  in 
"  The  Land  East  of  the  Sun,"  rhyme  might  have  been  dispensed 
with  altogether,  since  it  often  forces  archaic  words  and  expres- 
sions into  use.  But  it  is  to  be  said  generally  of  Morris's  manage- 
ment of  the  meter  in  the  Old  Norse  pieces,  that  it  was  adequate 
to  gain  his  end  always,  whether  that  end  \yas  to  tell  an  Old  Norse 
story  in  English,  or  to  carry  over  an  Old  Norse  spirit  into  Eng- 
lish. Of  this  second  achievement  we  shall  speak  further  in  con- 
sidering Sig7i7-d  the   I  ^olsiing. 

There  is  one  more  tale  in  The  Earthly  Paradise  which  origi- 
nated in  Norse  legend.  "The  Fostering  of  Aslaug  "  is  drawn 
from  Thorpe's  Northern  JSIythology^  which  epitomizes  older 
sources.  Aslaug  is  the  daughter  of  Iceland's  great  hero,  Sig- 
urd, and  Iceland's  great  heroine,  Brynhild,  and  her  life  is  set 
down  in  this  poem  most  beautifully.  Again  we  note  that  the 
added  touches  of  later  poets  fail  to  lca\e  the  sense  of  the  strenu- 
ous in  the  picture.  Aslaug  is  like  a  fayorite  representation  of 
Brynhild  that  we  haye  seen,  a  lil\  -maid  in  aspect,  or  a  Margue- 
rite. Her  mother's  masculinit\-  is  gone,  and  with  it  the  ( )ld 
Norse  flavor.  It  is  the  pri\  ilcge  of  our  age  to  enjoy  both  the 
virility  of  the  Old  Norse  and  the  delicacy  of  the  mediteval  con- 
ceptions, and  William  Morris  has  caught  both. 

3- 

In  the  opening  lines  of  "The  Fostering  of  Aslaug,"  our  poet 
wrote  his  doubts  about  his  ability  to  sing  the  life  of  Sigurtl  in  be- 


te 


fitting  manner.     At  that  time  he  said 


48 

But  now  have  I  no  heart  to  raise 
That  mighty  sorrow  laid  asleep, 
That  love  so  sweet,  so  strong  and  deep. 
That  as  ye  hear  the  wonder  told 
In  those  few  strenuous  words  of  old, 
The  whole  world  seems  to  rend  apart 
When  heart  is  torn  away  from  heart. 
(Vol.  Ill,  p.  28.) 

It  is  a  common  complaint  against  the  poetry  of  William  Morris 
that  it  is  too  long-winded.  Each  to  his  taste  in  this  matter,  but 
we  beg  to  call  attention  to  one  line  in  the  above  passage  : 

In  those  few  strenuous  words  of  old. 

Whatever  may  have  been  Morris'  tendency  when  he  wrote  his 
own  poetry,  he  knew  when  concision  was  a  virtue  in  the  poetry 
of  others.  There  is  no  better  description  of  the  Vdlstiitga  Saga 
than  the  above  line,  and  William  Morris  gave  the  English  people 
a  literal  version  of  the  saga,  if  mayhap  that  strenuous  paucity 
might  translate  the  old  spirit.  But,  as  if  he  knew  that  many 
readers  would  fail  to  make  much  of  this  version,  he  tried  again 
on  a  larger  scale,  and  the  great  volume  Sigurd  the  Volsung^ 
epic  in  character  and  proportions,  was  the  result.  Of  these  two 
we  shall  now  speak. 

The  Volsunga  Saga  was  published  in  1870,  only  two  years 
after  Morris  had  begun  to  study  Icelandic  with  Eirikr  Magnusson. 
The  latter's  name  is  on  the  title  page  as  the  first  of  the  two  co- 
translators.  The  Saga  was  svipplemented  by  certain  songs  from 
the  Elder  Edda  which  were  introduced  bv  the  translators  at 
points  where  they  would  come  naturally  in  the  story.  The 
work,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  is  well  done,  and  the  attempt  was 
successful  to  make,  as  the  preface  proposes,  the  "  rendering  close 
and  accurate,  and,  if  it  might  be  so,  at  the  same  time,  not  over 
prosaic."  The  last  two  paragraphs  of  this  preface  are  particu- 
larly interesting  to  one  who  is  tracing  the  influence  of  Old  Norse 
literatiu-e  on  English  literature,  because  they  are  %vords  with 
power,  that  have  stirred  men  and  will  stir  men  to  learn  more 
about  a  wonderful  land  and  its  lore.      We  copv  them  entire  : 

"As  to  the  literary  quality  of  this  work  we  might  say  much, 
but  we  think  we  may  well  trust  the  reader  of  poetic  insight  to 
break  through  whatever  entanglement  of  strange  manners  or  im- 


49 

used  element  may  at  first  troulilc  him,  and  lo  mccl  the  nature  and 
beauty  with  which  it  is  filled :  we  cannot  doubt  that  such  a 
reader  will  be  intensely  touched  by  finding,  amidst  all  its  wild- 
ness  and  remoteness,  such  startling  realism,  such  subtiltv,  such 
close  sympathy  with  all  tl:e  passions  that  ma\  move  himself 
to-day. 

"  In  conclusion,  we  must  again  sav  how  strange  it  seems  to  us, 
that  this  Volsung  Tale,  which  is  in  fact  an  unversified  poem, 
should  never  before  have  been  translated  into  English.  For  this 
is  the  Great  Story  of  the  North,  \vhich  should  be  to  all  (uir  race 
what  the  Tale  of  Trov  was  to  the  Greeks — to  all  our  race  first, 
and  afterwards,  when  the  change  of  the  world  has  made  our 
race  nothing  more  than  a  name  of  what  has  been — a  storv  too — 
then  should  it  be  to  those  that  come  after  us  no  less  than  the  Tale 
of  Troy  has  been  to  us." 

Morris  wrote  a  prologue  in  verse  for  this  voliuiic,  and  it  is  an 
exquisite  poem,  such  as  onlv  he  seemed  able  to  indite.  So  often 
does  the  reader  of  Morris  come  upon  gems  like  this,  that  one  is 
tempted  to  rail  against  the  common  ignorance  about  liiin  : 

O  hearken,  ye  who  speak  the  English  Tongue, 

How  in  a  waste  land  ages  long  ago, 
The  very  heart  of  the  North  bloomed  into  song 

After  long  brooding  o'er  this  tale  of  woe  I 


Yea,  in  the  first  gray  dawning  of  our  race, 

This  ruth-crowned  tangle  to  sad  hearts  was  dear. 

So  draw  ye  round  and  hearken,  English  Folk, 
Unto  the  best  tale  pity  ever  wrought  1 

Of  how  from  dark  to  dark  bright  Sigurd  broke. 
Of  Brynhild's  glorious  soul  with  love  distraught, 
Of  Gudrun's  weary  wandering  unto  naught, 

Of  utter  love  defeated  utterly, 

Of  Grief  too  strong  to  give  Love  time  to  die  ! 

4- 
Six  years  later,   in  1S77   (English  edition),  Morris   published 
the  long  poem.  The  Story  of  Sigurd  the  Volsung  and  The  Fall 
of  the  Niblungs^  and  in  it  gave  the  peerless  crown  of  all   Eng- 


50 

lish  poems  springing  from  Old  Norse  sources.  The  poet  con- 
sidered this  his  most  important  work,  and  he  was  prouder  of  it 
than  of  any  other  literary  work  that  he  did.  One  who  studies  it 
can  understand  this  pride,  but  he  cannot  understand  the  neglect 
by  the  reading  public  of  this  remarkable  poem.  The  history  of 
book-selling  in  the  last  decade  shows  strange  revivals  of  interest 
in  authors  long  dead ;  it  will  be  safe  to  prophesy  such  a  revival 
for  William  Morris,  because  valuable  treasvu'es  will  not  always 
remain  hidden.  In  his  case,  however,  it  will  not  be  a  revival, 
because  there  has  not  been  an  awakening  yet.  That  awakening 
must  come,  and  thousands  will  see  that  William  Morris  was  a 
great  poet  who  have  not  vet  heard  of  his  name.  Let  us  look  at 
his  greatest  work  with  some  degree  of  minuteness. 

The  opening  lines  are  a  good  model  of  the  meter,  and  we  find 
it  different  from  any  that  we  have  considered  so  far.  There  are 
certain  peculiarities  about  it  that  make  it  seem  a  perfect  medium 
for  translating  the  Old  Norse  spirit.  Most  of  these  peculiarities 
are  in  the  opening  lines,  and  so  we  may  transfer  them  to  this 


A 


There  was  a  dwelling  of  Kings  ere  the  world  was  waxen  old  ; 

Dukes  were  the   door-wards   there,  and   the  roofs   were  thatched   with 

gold  ; 
Earls  were  the  wrights  that  wrought  it,  and  silver  nailed  its  doors  ; 
Earls'    wives  were  the  weaving-women,  queens'  daughters   strewed  its 

floors, 
And  the  masters  of  its  song-craft  were  the  mightiest  men  that  cast 
The  sails  of  the  storm  of  battle  adown  the  bickering  blast. 

Everybody  knows  that  alliteration  was  a  principle  of  Icelandic 
verse.  It  strikes  the  ear  that  hears  Icelandic  poetry  for  the  first 
time — or  the  eye  that  sees  it,  since  most  of  us  read  it  silently — as 
unpleasantly  insistent,  but  on  fuller  acquaintance,  we  lose  this 
sense  of  obtrusiveness.  Morris,  in  this  poem,  uses  alliteration, 
but  so  skilfully  that  only  the  reader  that  seeks  it  discovers  it.  A 
less  superb  artist  would  have  made  it  stick  out  in  every  line,  so 
that  the  device  wovdd  be  a  hindrance  to  tbe  story -telling.  As  it 
is,  nowhere  in  the  more  than  nine  thousand  lines  of  Sigurd 
the  Volsung  is  this  alliteration  an  excrescence,  but  everywhere 
it  is  woven  into  the  grand  design  of  a  fabric  which  is  the  richer 
for  its  foreign  workmanship. 

1  Citations  are  from  the  3d  edition.     Boston.     18S1. 


51 

Notice  that  djtkc  and  battle  and  juaster  are  the  only  words  not 

thoroughly  Teutonic.      This  (nerwhelming  predominance  of  the 

Anglo-Saxon  element  over  the  French  is  in  keeping  with  the 
original  of  the  story.  Of  course  it  is  an  accident  that  so  small  a 
proportion  of  Latin  derivatives  is  found  in  these  six  lines,  but 
the  fact  remains  that  Morris  set  himself  to  tell  a  Teutonic  story 
in  Teutonic  idiom.  That  idiom  is  not  very  strange  to  present- 
day  readers,  indeed  we  may  say  it  has  but  a  fillip  of  strangeness. 
Archaisms  are  characteristic  of  poetic  diction,  and  those  found  in 
this  poem  that  are  not  common  to  other  poetry  are  used  to  gain 
an  Old  Norse  flavor.  The  following  \yords  taken  from  Book  I 
of  the  poem  are  the  only  unfamiliar  ones  :  benight^  meaning 
"  at  night  "  ;  ''so  xvhi  the  long  years  over  "  ;  eel-grig ;  sackless  ; 
bursten^  a  participle.  The  compounds  door-zcard  and  so/ig- 
craft  are  representative  of  others  that  are  sprinkled  in  fair  num- 
ber through  the  poem.  They  are  the  best  that  our  language  can 
do  to  reproduce  the  fine  combinations  that  the  Icelandic  language 
formed  so  readily.  English  lends  itself  well  to  this  device,  as 
the  many  compounds  show  that  Morris  took  from  common  usage. 
Such  words  as  roof-tree^  song-craft ^  emptv-handed^  grave- 
mound^  storc-Jiouse.,  taken  at  random  from  the  pages  of  this 
poem,  show  that  the  genius  of  our  language  permits  such  forma- 
tions. When  Morris  carries  the  practice  a  little  further,  and 
makes  for  his  poem  such  words  as  door-zvard^  chance-hap^ 
slutnber-tide^  troth-xvord^  God-home^  and  a  thousand  others,  he 
is  not  taking  liberties  with  the  language,  and  he  is  using  a  power- 
ful aid  in  translating  the  Old  Norse  spirit. 

One  more  peculiar  characteristic  of  Icelandic  is  admirably  ex- 
hibited in  this  poem.  We  ha^•e  seen  thai  Warton  recognized  in 
the  "Runic  poets"  a  warnilli  of  fanc\  which  expressed  itself  in  , 
"  circumlocution  and  comparisons,  not  as  a  matter  of  necessity, 
but  oT  choice  and  skill."  Certainly  Morris  in  u>ing  these  cir- 
cumlocutions in  Sigurd  the  Volsung^  has  exercised  remarkable 
skill  in  weaving  them  into  his  story.  Like  the  alliterations,  they 
are  part  of  an  harmonious  design.      Examples  abound,  like  : 

Adown  unto  the  swan-bath  the  Volsung  Children  ride  : 

and  this  other  for  the  same  tiling,  the  -ea  : 

While  sleepeth  the  fields  of  the  fishes  amidst  the  summer-tide. 


52 

Still  others  for  the  water  are  sivati-mcad^  and  "bed-gear  of  the 
swan." 

"The  serpent  of  death"  and  xvar-Jiame^  for  sword;  earth- 
bone^  for  rock ;  Jight-sheaves^  for  armed  hosts  ;  seabtirg^  for 
boats,  are  other  striking  examples. 

So  much  for  the  mechanical  details  of  this  poem.  Its  literary 
features  are  so  exceptional  that  we  must  examine  them  at  length. 

Book  I  is  entitled  "  Sigmund"  and  the  description  is  set  at  the 
head  of  it.  "  In  this  book  is  told  of  the  earlier  days  of  the  Vol- 
sungs,  and  of  vSigmund  the  father  of  Sigurd,  and  of  his  deeds, 
and  of  how  he  died  while  Sigurd  was  yet  unborn  in  his  mother's 
womb." 

There  are  many  departures  from  the  Volstmga  Saga  in  this 
poetic  version,  and  all  seem  to  be  accounted  for  by  a  desire  to  im- 
press present-dav  readers  with  this  story.  The  poem  begins 
with  Volsung,  omitting,  therefore,  the  marvelous  birth  of  that 
king  and  the  oath  of  the  unborn  child  to  "  flee  in  fear  from 
neither  fire  nor  the  sword."  The  saga  makes  the  wolf  kill  one 
of  Volsung's  sons  every  night ;  the  poem  changes  the  number  to 
two.  A  magnificent  scene  is  invented  by  Morris  in  the  midnight 
visit  of  Signv  to  the  wood  where  her  brothers  had  been  slain. 
She  speaks  to  the  brother  that  is  left,  desiring  to  know  what  he 
is  doing  : 

O  yea,  I  am  living  indeed,  and  this  labor  of  mine  hand 
Is  to  bury  the  bones  of  the  Volsungs  ;  and  lo,  it  is  well  nigh  done. 
So  draw  near,  Volsung's  daughter,  and  pile  we  many  a  stone 
Where  lie  the  gray  wolf's  gleanings  of  what  was  once  so  good. 

(P-  23.) 

The  dialogue  of  brother  and  sister  is  a  mighty  conception,  and 
surely  the  old  Icelanders  would  have  called  Morris  a  rare  singer. 
Sigmund  tells  the  story  of  the  deaths  of  his  brothers,  adding 


But  now  was  I  wroth  with  the  Gods,  that  had  made  the  Volsungs  for 

nought ; 
And  I  said  :  in  the  Day  of  their  Doom  a  man's  help  shall  they  miss, 

(P.  24.) 

But  Signy  is  reconciled  to  the  workings  of  Fate  : 

I  am  nothing  so  wroth  as  thou  art  with  the  ways  of  death  and  hell, 
For  thereof  had  I  a  deeming  when  all  things  were  seeming  well. 


53 

The  dav  to  come  shall  set  their  woes  rigfht : 

There  as  thou  drawest  thy  sword,  thou  shalt  think  of  the  days  that  were 

And  the  foul  shall  still  seem  foul,  and  the  fair  shall  still  seem  fair  ; 

Rut  thy  wit  shall  then  be  awakened,  and  thou  shalt  know  indeed 

Why  the  brave  man's  spear  is  broken,  and  his  war  shield  fails  at  need  ; 

Why  the  loving  is  unbeloved  ;  why  the  just  man  falls  from  his  state  ; 

Why  the  liar  gains  in  a  day  what  the  soothfast  strives  for  late. 

Yea,  and  thy  deeds  shalt  thou  know,  and  great  shall  thy  gladness  be  ; 

As  a  picture  all  of  gold  thy  life-days  shalt  thou  see, 

And  know  that  thou  wert  a  God  to  abide  through  the  hurry  and    haste  ; 

A  God  in  the  golden  hall,  a  God  in  the  rain-swept  waste, 

A  God  in  the  battle  triumphant,  a  God  on  the  heap  of  the  slain  : 

And  thine  hope  shall  arise  and  blossom,  and  thy  love  shall  be  quickened 

again  : 
And  then  shalt  thou  see  before  thee  the  face  of  all  earthly  ill  ; 
Thou  shalt  drink  of  the  cup  of  awakening  that  thine  hand  hath  holpen 

to  fill  ; 

By  the  side  of  the  sons  of  Odin  shalt  thou  fashion  a  tale  to  be  told 

In  the  hall  of  the  happy  ]>aldur. 

(P.  25.) 

In  this  wise  one  Christian  might  hearten  another  to  accept  the 
dealings  of  Providence  to-day.  While  we  do  not  think  that  a 
worshipper  of  Odin  would  have  spoken  all  these  words,  they  are 
not  an  undue  exasfseration  of  the  noblest  traits  of  the  old  Ice- 
landic  religion.  ' 

The  poem  does  not  record  the  death  of  Siggeir's  and  Signy's 
son,  though  the  saga  does.  Morris  adds  a  touch  when  he  makes 
the  imprisoned  men  exult  over  the  sword  that  Signy  drops  into 
their  grave,  and  he  also  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Siggeir  in  the 
burning  hall  words  that  the  saga  does  not  contain.  The  poem 
says  that  the  women  of  the  Gothfolk  were  permitted  to  retire  from 
the  burning  hall,  but  the  saga  has  no  such  statement.  The  war  of 
foul  words  between  Granmar  ami  .Sinfjotli  is  left  in  the  saga,  and 
the  cause  of  Gudrod's  death  is  changed  from  rivalry  over  a 
woman  to  anger  over  a  division  of  war  booty.  In  Sigmund's 
lament  over  his  childlessness  we  have  another  of  the  poet's  addi- 
tions, and  certainly  we  find  no  fault  with  the  liberty  : 

The  tree  was  stalwart,  but  its  boughs  are  old  and  worn. 
Where  now  are  the  children  departed,  that  amidst  my  life  were  born  ? 
I  know  not  the  men  about  me,  and  they  know  not  of  my  ways  : 


54 

I  am  nought  but  a  picture  of  battle,  and  a  song  for  the  people  to  praise. 

I  must  strive  with  the  deeds  of  my  kingship,  and  yet  when  mine   hour 

is  come 

It  shall  meet  me  as  glad  as  the   goodman  when  he  bringeth  the  last 

load  home. 

(P.  56.) 

AVheii  the  great  hero  dies,  Morris  puts  into  his  mouth  another 
of  the  magnificent  speeches  that  are  the  glory  of  this  poem. 
Four  lines  from  it  must  suffice  : 

When  the  gods  for  one  deed  asked  me  I  ever  gave  them  twain  ; 
Spendthrift  of  glory  I  was,  and  great  was  my  life-day's  gain. 

Our  wisdom  and  valour  have  kissed,  and  thine  eyes  shall  see  the  fruit. 

And  the  joy  for  his  days  that   shall  be  hath  pierced  my  heart  to  the 

root. 

(P.  62.) 

It  appears  from  this  study  of  Book  I  that  Sigurd  the  Volsung 
has  adapted  the  saga  storv  to  our  civilization  and  our  art,  hold- 
ing to  the  best  of  the  old  and  supplementing  it  by  new  that  is 
ever  in  keeping  with  the  old.  Other  instances  of  this  eclectic 
habit  ma}-  be  seen  in  the  other  three  books,  but  we  shall  quote 
from  these  for  other  purposes. 

Book  II  is  entitled  "  Regin."  "  Now  this  is  the  first  book  of 
the  life  and  death  of  Sigurd  the  Volsung,  and  therein  is  told  of 
the  birth  of  him,  and  of  his  dealings  with  Regin  the  Master  of 
Masters,  and  of  his  deeds  in  the  waste  places  of  the  earth." 

Morris  was  deeplv  read  in  Old  Norse  literature,  and  out  of  his 
stores  of  knowledge  he  brought  vivifving  details  for  this  poem. 
Such,  for  instance,  is  the  description  of  Sigurd's  eyes,  not  found 
just  here  in  the  saga  : 

In  the  bed  there  lieth  a  man-child,  and  his  eyes  look  straight  on  the 
sun. 


\ 


Yet  they  shrank  in  their  rejoicing  before  the  eyes  of  the  child. 

In  the  naming  of  the  child  bv  an   ancient  name,  the   meaning 
of  that  name  is  indicated  : 

O  Sigurd,  Son  of  the  Volsungs,  O  Victory  yet  to  be  I 
The  festivities  over  the    birth  of    the   child  are  wonderfulh" 


55 

described  in  the  brief  lines,  and  they  are  a  picture  out  of  another 
book  than  the  saga  : 

Earls  think  of  marvellous  stories,  and  along  the  golden  strings 
Flit  words  of  banded  brethren  and  names  of  war- fain  Kings. 

Over  and  over  again  in  this  poem  Morris  records  the  Icelanders* 
desire  "to  leave  a  tale  to  tell,"  and  here  are  Sigurd's  words  to 
Regfin  who  has  been  egfging  hini  on  lo  deeds  : 

Yet  I  know  that  the  world  is  wide,  and  filled  with  deeds  unwrought  ; 
And  for  e'en  such  work  was  1  fashioned,  lest  the  songcraft  come  to 

nought. 
When  the  harps  of  God- home  tinkle,  and  the  Gods  are  at  stretch  to 

hearken  : 
Lest  the  hosts  of  the  Gods  be  scanty  when  their  day  hath  begun  to 

darken.  (P.  82.) 

In  Book  II  we  have  other  great  speeches  that  the  poet  has  put 
into  the  mouth  of  his  characters  with  little  or  no  justification  in 
the  original  saga.  Chap.  XIV  of  the  saga  contains  Regin's  tale 
of  his  brothers,  and  of  the  gold  called  "  Andvari's  Hoard," 
and  that  tale  is  severely  brief  and  plain.  The  account  in  the 
poem  is  expanded  greatly,  and  the  conception  of  Regin  materially 
altered.  In  the  saga  he  was  not  the  discontented  youngest  son  of 
his  father,  prone  to  talk  of  his  woes  and  to  lament  his  lot.  In 
the  poem  he  does  this  in  so  eloquent  a  fashion  that  almost  we  are 
persuaded  to  sympathize  with  him.  Certainly  his  lines  were  hard, 
to  have  outlived  his  great  deeds,  and  to  hear  his  many  inventions 
ascribed  to  the  gods.  The  speech  of  the  released  Odin  to  Reid- 
mar  is  modeled  on  Job's  conception  of  omnipotence,  and  it  is 
one  of  the  memorable  parts  of  this  book.  Gripir's  prophecy, 
too,  is  a  majestic  work,  and  its  original  was  three  sentences  in 
the  saga  and  the  poem  Gripisspa  in  the  hercMc  songs  of  the 
Edda.      Here  Morris  rises  to  the  heights  of  Sigurd's  greatness  : 

Sigurd,  Sigurd  !     O  great,  O  early  born  ! 
O  hope  of  the  Kings  first  fashioned  \     O  blossom  of  the  morn  ! 
Short  day  and  long  remembrance,  fair  summer  of  the  North  ! 
One  day  shall  the  worn  world  wonder  how  first  thou  wentest  forth  ! 

(P.  III.) 

Those  who  have  read  William  ^Morris  know  that  he  is  a  master 
of  nature  description.     The  "  Glittering  Heath  "  offered  a   fine 


56 

opportunity  for  this  sort  of  work,  and  in  this  piece  we  have 
another  departure  from  the  saga.  Morris  made  hundreds  of 
pictures  in  this  poem,  but  the  pages  describing  the  journey  to 
the  "  Glittering  Heath  "  are  packed  with  them  to  an  extraordinary 
degree.  Here  is  Iceland  in  yery  fact,  all  dust  and  ashes  to  the 
eye: 

More  changeless  than  mid-ocean,  as  fruitless  as  its  floor. 

We  confess  that  there  is  something  in  the  scene  that  holds  us, 
all  shorn  of  beauty  though  it  is.  We  do  not  want  to  go  the 
length  of  Thomas  Hardy,  howeyer,  who,  in  that  wonderful  first 
chapter  of  The  Return  of  the  Native  has  a  similar  heath  to 
describe.  "  The  new  yale  of  Tempe,"  says  he,  "  may  be  a 
sraunt  waste  in  Thule  :  human  souls  may  find  themselyes  in  closer 
and  closer  harmony  with  external  things  wearing  a  sombreness 
distasteful  to  our  race  when  it  was  young.  .  .  .  The  time  seems 
near,  if  it  has  not  actually  arrived,  yv^hen  the  mournful  sublimity  of 
a  inoor,  a  sea,  or  a  mountain,  will  be  all  of  nature  that  is  absolutely 
consonant  with  the  moods  of  the  more  thinking  among  mankind. 
And  ultimately,  to  the  commonest  tourist,  spots  like  Iceland  may 
become  what  the  vineyards  and  myrtlegardens  of  South  Europe 
are  to  him  now."  Is  it  not  a  suggestive  thought  that  England 
and  the  nineteenth  century  evolved  a  pessimism  which  poor  Ice- 
land on  its  ash-heap  never  could  conceive  ?  William  Morris  was 
an  Icelander,  not  an  Englishman,  in  his  philosophy. 

In  this  same  scene,  a  notable  deviation  from  the  saga  is  the 
conversation  between  Regin  and  Sigurd  concerning  the  relations 
that  shall  be  between  them  after  the  slaying  of  Fafnir.  Here 
Morris  impresses  the  lesson  of  Regin's  greed,  taking  the  un-Ice- 
landic  device  of  preaching  to  serve  his  purpose  : 

Let  it  lead  thee  up  to  heaven,  let  it  lead  thee  down  to  hell, 

The  deed  shall  be  done  tomorrow  :  thou  shalt  have  that  measureless 

Gold, 
And  devour  the  garnered  wisdom  that  blessed  thy  realm  of  old, 
That  hath  lain  unspent  and  begrudged  in  the  very  heart  of  hate  : 
With  the  blood  and  the  might  of  thy  brother  thine   hunger  shalt  thou 

sate  : 
And  this  deed  shall  be  mine  and  thine  ;  but  take  heed   for  what   fol- 

loweth  then  1 

(P.  119.) 


57 

In  still  another  place  has  Morris  departed  far  from  the  saga 
story.  According  to  the  poem,  Sigurd  meets  each  warning  of 
Fafnir  that  the  gold  will  he  the  curse  of  its  possessor  with  the 
assurance  that  he  will  cast  the  gold  abroad,  and  let  none  of  it 
cling  to  his  fingers.  The  saga,  however,  has  this  very  frank  con- 
fession :  "Home  would  I  ride  and  lose  all  that  wealth,  if  I 
deemed  that  by  the  losing  thereof  I  should  never  die ;  but  every 
brave  and  true  man  w  ill  fain  have  his  hand  on  wealth  till  that 
last  day."  Here,  again,  we  see  an  adaptation  of  the  story  of  the 
poem  to  modern  conceptions  of  nobility.  It  remains  to  be  said 
that  the  ernes  move  Sigurd  to  take  the  gold  for  the  gladdening  of 
the  world,  and  they  assure  him  that  a  son  of  the  Volsung  had 
nought  to  fear  from  the  Curse.  The  seven-times-repeated  ''•  Bind 
the  red  rings,  O  Sigurd,"  is  an  admirable  poem,  but  it  does  not 
contain  information  concerning  Brynhild,  as  do  the  strophes  of 
Reginsmdl  which  are  the  model  for  this  lay. 

Let  us  look  at  the  art  of  Morris  as  it  is  shown  in  telling  "  How 
Sigurd  awoke  Brvnhild  upon  Hindfell."  As  in  the  saga,  so  in 
the  English  poem,  this  incident  has  a  setting  most  favorable  to 
the  displav  of  its  remarkable  beauties.  It  is  a  picture  as  pure 
and  sweet  as  it  has  ever  entered  into  the  mind  of  man  to  conceive. 
The  conception  belongs  to  the  poetic  lore  of  many  nations,  and 
children  are  early  introduced  to  the  story  of  ''  Sleeping  Beauty." 
There  are  some  features  of  the  Old  Norse  version  that  are  especi- 
ally charming,  and  first  among  them  is  the  address  of  the  awak- 
ened Brynhild  to  the  sun  and  the  earth.  We  are  told  that  this 
maiden  loved  the  radiant  hero  that  here  awoke  her  from  her 
age-long  sleep,  but  not  for  him  is  her  first  greeting.  A  finer 
thrill  moves  her  than  love  for  a  man,  and  in  Morris's  poem,  this 
feeling  finds  singularly  beautiful  expression  : 
All  hail  O  Day  and  thy  Sons,  and  thy  kin  of  the  coloured  things  ! 
Hail,   following   Night,   and  thy   Daughter   that  leadeth  thy  wavering 

wings  ! 
Look  down  with  unangry  eyes  on  us  today  alive, 
And  give  us  the  hearts  victorious,  and  the  gain  for  which  we  strive  '. 
All  hail,  ye  Lords  of  God-home,  and  ye  Oueens  of  the  House  of  Gold  ! 
Hail  thou  dear  Earth  that  bearest,  and  thou  Wealth  of  field  and  fold  ! 
Give  us,  your  noble  children,  the  glory  of  wisdom  and  speech. 
And  the  hearts  and  the  hands  of  healing,  and  the   mouths  and  hands 

that  teach  ! 

(P.  140.) 


58 

In  order  to  see  just  what  the  art  of  Morris  has  done  for  this  poem, 
let  us  compare  this  address  with  the  rendering  of  the  Sigi'dri- 
funidl^  which  tell  the  same  story  and  which  Morris  and  Magnus- 
son  have  incorporated  into  their  translation  of  the  Volsunga 
Saga.     The  verses  are  not  in  the  original  saga  : 

Hail  to  the  day  come  back  ! 

Hail,  sons  of  the  daylight  I 
Hail  to  thee,  dark  night,  and  thy  daughter  1 

Look  with  kind  eyes  a-down, 

On  us  sitting  here  lonely. 
And  give  unto  us  the  gain  that  we  long  for. 

Hail  to  the  /Esir, 

And  the  sweet  Asyniur  ! 
Hail  to  the  fair  earth  fulfilled  of  plenty  ! 

Fair  words,  wise  hearts. 

Would  we  win  from  you, 
And  healing  hands  while  life  we  hold. 

To  get  the  full  benefit  of  the  comparison  of  the  old  and  the 
new,  let  us  set  in  conjunction  with  these  versions  a  severely 
literal  translation  of  the  Edda  strophes  themselves  : 

Hail,  O  Day, 

Hail,  O  Sons  of  the  Day, 

Hail  Night  and  kinswon>an  I 

With  unwroth  eyes 

look  on  us  here 

and  give  to  us  sitting  ones  victory. 

Hail,  O  Gods, 

Hail,  O  Goddesses, 

Hail,  O  bounteous  Earth  I 

Speech  and  wisdom 

give  to  us,  the  excellent  twain, 

and  healing  hands  during  life. 

These  stages  in  the  progress  of  the  gold  from  mine  to  mint  fur- 
nish their  own  commentary.  The  finished  product  will  pass 
current  with  the  most  exacting  of  assavers,  as  well  as  gladden 
the  hearts  of  the  poor  one  whose  hand  seldom  touches  gold. 

If  the  skill  of  the  poet  in  this  case  have  merited  resemblance 
to  that  of  the  refiner  of  gold,  what  name  less  than  alchemy  can 
characterize  his  achievement  in  the  rest  of  this  scene }  From  the 
first  words  of  Brvnhild's  life-storv  : 


59 

I  am  she  that  loveth  ;   I  was  born  of  the  earthly  folk  ; 

to  the  tentlcr  words  that  tell  of  the  comino^  of  anotlier  tla\  : 

And  fresh  and  all  abundant  abode  the  deeds  of  Day, 

there  is  a  succession  of  I'teautiful  scenes  and  glorious  speeches 
such  as  only  a  master  of  magic  could  have  gotten  out  of  the 
original  story.  The  Eddaic  account  of  the  Valkyr's  disobedience 
to  All-Father,  pictures  a  saucy  and  self-willed  maiden.  Sentence 
has  been  pronounced  upon  her,  and  thus  the  story  continues  : 
"  But  I  said  T  %vould  vow  a  vow  against  it,  and  marr\-  no  man 
that  knew  fear."  The  Volsunga  Saga  gives  exactlv  the  same 
account,  but  the  poetic  version  of  IVIorris  saves  the  maiden  for 
our  respect  and  admiration.  It  is  not  effronters .  but  repentance 
that  speaks  in  the  voice  of  Brynhild  here  : 

The  thoughts  of  my  heart  overcame  me,  and  the  pride  of  my  wisdom 
and  speech, 
And  I  scorned  the  earth-folk's  Framer,  and  the  Lord  of  the  world   1 
must  teach. 

In  the  Icelandic  version,  Odin  makes  no  speech  at  tlie  dooming, 
but  Morris  puts  into  his  mouth  this  magnificent  address  : 

And  he  cried:     "Thou  hast  thought  in  thy  folly  that  the  Gods  have 

friends  and  foes, 
That  they  wake,    and  the  world  wends  onward,  that  they   sleep,  and 

the  world  slips  back, 
That  they   laugh,   and  the  world's  weal   waxeth,   that  they  frown  and 

fashion  the  wrack  : 
Thou  hast  cast  up  the  curse  against  me  ;  it  shall  aback  on  thine  head  ; 
Go  back  to  the  sons  of  repentance,  with  the  children  of  sorrow  wed  I 
For  the  Gods  are  great  unholpen,  and  their  grief  is  seldom  seen. 
And  the  wrong  that  they  will  and  must  be  is  soon  as  it  hath  not  been." 

(P.  141.) 

Morris  has  here  again  exercised  the  poet's  privilege  of  adding 
to  the  story  that  was  the  pride  of  an  entire  age,  in  order  to  serve 
his  ow^n  the  better.  If  he  was  wise  in  these  additions,  he  \vas 
no  less  wise  in  subtractions  and  in  preservations.  The  saga  has 
a  long  address  by  Brynhild,  opening  with  mystical  advice  con- 
cerning the  power  of  runes,  and  closing  grandly  with  wise 
words  that  sound  like  a  page  from  the  Old  Testament.  The 
former  find  no  place  in   Sigurd  the  ]'olsung^  but  the  latter  are 


60 

turned  into  mis^htv  phrases  that  wonderfully  preserve  the  spirit 
of  the  original. 

One  passage  more  from  Book  II  : 

So  they  climb  the  burg  of  Hindfell,  and  hand  in  hand  they  fare, 

Till  all  about  and  above  them  is  nought  but  the  sunlit  air, 

And  there  close  they  cling  together  rejoicing  in  their  mirth  ; 

For  far  away  beneath  them  lie  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth, 

And  the  garths   of  men-folk's  dwellings  and   the  streams  that   water 

them, 
And  the  rich  and  plenteous  acres,  and  the  silver  ocean's  hem, 
And  the  woodland  wastes  and  the  mountains,  and  all  that  holdeth  all  ; 
The  house  and  the  ship  and  the  island,  the  loom  and  the  mine  and  the 

stall, 
The  beds  of  bane  and  healing,  the  crafts  that  slay  and  save, 
The  temple  of  God  and  the  Doom-ring,  the  cradle  and  the  grave. 

(P.  145.) 

These  ten  lines  serve  to  illustrate  very  well  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable powers  of  Morris.  Just  consider  for  a  moment  the 
number  of  details  that  are  crowded  into  this  picture,  and  then 
notice  how  few  are  the  strokes  required  to  put  them  there.  For 
this  rapid  painting  of  a  crowded  canvas  Morris  is  second  to  none 
among  English  poets.  This  power  to  put  a  whole  landscape  or 
a  complex  personality  into  a  few  lines  is  the  direct  outcome  of 
his  study  of  Old  Norse  literature.  Icelandic  poetry  is  character- 
ized by  this  quality.  One  has  but  to  compare  the  account  of  the 
end  of  the  world  as  it  is  found  in  the  last  strophes  of  Voluspd^ 
or  in  the  Prose  Edda^  with  the  similar  account  in  Revelations  to 
see  how  much  two  languages  may  differ  in  this  respect.  It 
would  seem  as  if  the  short  verses  characteristic  of  Icelandic  poetry 
forbade  lengthy  descriptions.  The  effect  must  be  produced  bv  a 
number  of  quick  strokes  :  there  is  never  time  to  go  over  a  line 
once  made.  A  simile  is  never  elaborated,  a  new  one  is  made 
when  the  poet  wishes  to  insist  on  the  figure.  Take  the  second 
strophe  of  the  "Ancient  Lay  of  Gudrun  "  as  an  example,  in  the 
translation  by  Morris  and  Magnusson  : 

Such  was  my  Sigurd 
Among  the  Sons  of  Giuki 
As  is  the  green  leek 
O'er  the  low  grass  waxen. 


I 


61 

Or  a  hart  high-limbed 
Over  hurrying  deer, 
Or  gleed-red  gold 
Over  grey  silver. 

That  is  the  Icclaiulic  fashion  ;  William  Mon'is  has  caught  it  in 
the  Story  of  Sigurd.  ]VIatthe\v  Arn(jlcl  has  not  seen  fit  t<j  use  it 
in  his  "  15alder  Dead,"  as  these  lines  show  : 

Him  the  blind  Hoder  met,  as  he  came  up 
From  the  sea  cityward,  and  knew  his  step  ; 
Nor  yet  could  Hermod  see  his  brother's  face. 
For  it  grew  dark  ;   but  Hermod  touched  his  arm. 
And  as  a  spray  of  honeysuckle  flowers 
Brushes  across  a  tired  traveller's  face 
Who  shuffles  thro  the  deep-moistened  dust. 
On  a  May-evening,  in  the  darkened  lanes, 
And  starts  him  that  he  thinks  a  ghost  went  by — 
So  Hoder  brushed  by  Hermod' s  side. 

These  are  noble  lines,  but  altogether  foreign  to  Icelandic. 

Book  III  opens  with  the  dream  of  Gudnin  and  Brynhild's  in- 
terpretation of  it.  This  matter  is  managed  in  accortlance  with 
our  own  standards  of  art,  and  lluis  differs  materially  from  the 
saga  story.  In  the  latter  a  most  nai\e  procedure  is  adopted,  for 
Brvnhild  prophesies  that  vSigurd  shall  lea\e  her  for  (Judrun, 
through  Grimhild's  guile,  that  strife  shall  come  between  them, 
and  that  Sigurd  shall  die  and  Gudrun  wed  Atli.  The  whole 
later  story  is  thus  revealed.  This  is  not  a  story-teller's  art,  but 
it  sets  clear  the  Old  Norse  acceptance  of  fate's  dealings.  Of 
course  Morris'  poetic  action  explains  the  dream  perfectly,  but  the 
details  are  not  so  frankly  given. 

"  Thou  shalt  live  and  love  and  lose,  and  mingle  in  murder  ami 
war,"  is  the  gist  of  Brynhild's  message,  and  the  whole  future 
history  is  there. 

This  poem  has  often  been  called  an  epic,  and  certainly  there 
are  many  epical  characteristics  in  it.  One  of  them  is  the  recm-- 
rence  of  certain  formula;,  and  in  l^ooks  111  aiul  1\'  these  are 
rather  more  abundant  than  in  the  first  two  books.  Thus  the 
sword  of   Sigurd  is  praised  in  the  same  words,  again  and  again  : 

It  hath  not  its  like  in  the  heavens  nor  has  earth  of  its  fellow  told. 

Then,  there  is  the  "  cloudy  hall-roof  "  of  the  Niblungs.    Gudrun 


62 

is  "the  white-armed";  Grimhild  is  "the  wisest  of  women"; 
Hogni  is  the  "  wise-heart"  ;  the  Nibhings  are  "  the  Cloudy  Peo- 
ple" ;  their  beds  are  "blue-covered";  "the  Godson  the  hang- 
ings "  is  an  expression  that  recurs  very  often,  and  it  recalls  the 
fact  that  Morris  was  an  artisan  as  well  as  an  artist. 

In  the  preceding  books  we  have  noted  that  Morris  lengthened 
the  saga  story  in  his  poem  by  the  introduction  of  speeches  that 
find  no  place  in  the  original.  In  this  book  we  see  another  length- 
ening process,  which,  with  that  already  noted,  goes  far  to  account 
for  the  difference  in  bulk  between  the  saga  and  the  poem.  Chap. 
XXVI  of  the  saga,  tells  in  less  than  a  thousands  words  how 
Sigurd  comes  to  the  Giukings  and  is  wedded  to  Gudrun.  His 
reception  is  told  in  one  hundred  words  ;  his  abode  with  the  Giuk- 
ings is  set  forth  in  even  fewer  words ;  Grimhild's  plotting  and 
administering  of  the  drugged  drink  are  told  in  two  hundred 
words ;  his  acceptance  of  Gvidrun's  hand  and  her  brother's  alle- 
giance are  as  tersely  pictured ;  kingdoms  are  conqviered,  a  son 
is  bom  to  Sigurd,  and  Grimhild  plots  to  have  Sigurd  get  Bryn- 
hild  for  her  son  Gunnar,  vet  the  record  of  it  all  is  compressed 
within  one  hundred  and  fifty  words.  Of  course,  the  modern 
poet  can  hem  himself  within  no  such  narrow  bounds  as  this.  The 
artistic  value  of  these  various  incidents  is  priceless,  and  Morris 
has  lingered  upon  them  lovingly  and  long.  He  spreads  the  story 
over  forty  pages,  or  a  thousand  lines,  and  I  avow,  after  a  third 
reading  of  these  three  sections  of  the  poem,  that  I  would  spare 
no  line  of  them.  How  we  love  this  Sigurd  of  the  poet's  paint- 
ing !     And  what  a  noble  gospel  he  proclaims  to  the  Giukings  : 

For  peace  I  bear  unto  thee,  and  to  all  the  kings  of  the  earth, 

Who  bear  the  sword  aright,  and  are  crowned  with  the  crown  of  worth  ; 

But  unpeace  to  the  lords  of  evil,  and  the  battle  and  the  death  ; 

And  the  edge  of  the  sword  to  the  traitor,  and  the  flame  to  the  slan- 
derous breath  : 

And  I  would  that  the  loving  were  loved,  and  I  would  that  the  weary 
should  sleep, 

And  that  man  should  hearken  to  man,  and  that  he  that  soweth  should 
reap.  (P.  174.) 

Here,  by  the  way,  is  the  bin-den  of  Morris's  preaching  in  the 
cause  of  a  better  society.  It  recurs  a  few  pages  further  on  in 
the  poem,  where  the  Niblungs  bestow  praise  on  this  new  hero  : 


63 

And  they  say,  when  the  sun  of  summer  shall  come  aback   to  the  land, 
It  shall  shine  on  the  fields  of  the  tiller  that  fears  no  heavy  hand  ; 
That  the  sleep  shall  be   for  the  plougher,  and  the  loaf  for  him  that 

sowed, 
Through  every  furrowed  acre  where  the  Son  of  Sigmund  rode. 

(P.  178.) 

It  need  hardly  be  remarked  that  this  Sigurd  is  not  the  saga- 
man's  ideal.  The  Icelanders  never  evolved  such  high  concep- 
tions of  man's  obligations  to  man,  but  in  their  ignorance  they 
were  no  worse  off  than  their  continental  brethren,  for  these  forgot 
their  greatest  Teacher's  teaching,  and  modern  social  science  must 
point  them  back  to  it. 

This  Sigurd  that  we  love  becomes  the  Sigurd  that  we  pity  in 
the  drinking  of  a  draught.  Sorrow  takes  the  place  of  jo\  in  his 
life,  and  "the  soul  is  changed  in  him."  so  that  men  ma\  say 
that  on  this  day  they  saw  him  die  the  hrst  time,  who  was  to  die 
a  second  time  by  Guttorm's  sword.  Gloom  spreads  over  all  the 
earth  with  the  quenching  of  Sigurd's  jov  : 


In  the  deedless  dark  he  rideth,  and  all  things  he  remembers  save  one, 
lought 
done. 


And   nought  else  hath  he  care  to  remember  of  all  the  deeds  he  hath 


Here  is  illustrated  the  essential  difference  between  the  saga- 
man's  art  and  the  modern  storv-teller's.  The  Icelander  must  tell 
his  story  in  haste  ;  the  deeds  of  men  are  his  care,  not  their  diva-  y  "•*. 
gations  nor  their  psychologizings.  The  modern  writer  mtist 
linger  on  every  step  in  the  story  vmtil  the  motive  and  the  mean- 
ing are  laid  bare.  In  the  present-dav  version  Sigurd's  mental 
sufferings  are  described  at  length,  and  our  hearts  are  w  rung  at 
his  vmmerited  woes.  The  saga  knows  no  such  woes,  and  to  all 
appearance  Sigurd's  life  is  not  unhappy  to  its  very  end.  Indeed, 
it  appears  in  more  than  one  place  in  Morris's  poem  that  Sigurd 
has  become  godlike  through  the  hard  experiences  of  his  lite. 
Take  this  passage  as  an  illustration  : 

So  is  Sigurd  yet  with  the  Niblungs,  and  he  lo\  eth  Gudrun  his  wife, 
And  wendeth  afield  with  the  brethren  to  the  days  of  the  dooming  of 

life; 
And  nought  his  glory  waneth,  nor  falleth  the  flood  of  praise  : 
To  every  man  he  hearkeneth,  nor  gainsayeth  any  grace, 


64 

And  glad  is  the  poor  in  the  Doom-ring  when  he  seeth  his  face  mid  the 

Kings, 
For  the  tangle   straighteneth  before    him,   and    the    maze     of  crooked 

things. 
But  the  smile  is  departed  from  him,  and  the  laugh  of  Sigurd  the  young. 
And  of  few  words  now  is  he  waxen,  and  his  songs  are  seldom  sung. 
Howbeit  of  all  the  sad-faced  was  Sigurd  loved  the  best  ; 
And  men  say  :    Is  the  king's  heart  mighty  beyond  all  hope  of  rest  .-^ 
Lo,  how  he  beareth  the  people  !   how  heavy  their  woes  are  grown  ! 
So  oft  were  a  God  mid  the  Goth-folk,  if  he  dwelt  in  the  world  alone. 

(P.  205.) 

Set  this  by  the  side  of  the  saga  :  "  This  is  truer,"  says  Sigurd, 
"  that  I  loved  thee  better  than  myself,  though  I  fell  into  the  wiles 
from  ^vhence  our  lives  may  not  escape ;  for  whenso  my  own 
heart  and  mind  availed  me,  then  I  sorrowed  sore  that  thou  wert 
not  my  wife ;  but  as  I  might  I  put  mv  trouble  from  me,  for  in  a 
king's  dwelling  was  I ;  and  withal  and  in  spite  of  all  I  was  \vell 
content  that  we  were  all  together.  Well  mav  it  be,  that  that 
shall  come  to  pass  which  is  foretold ;  neither  shall  I  fear  the  ful- 
filment thereof."  (  Vohnnga  Saga^  Chap.  XXIX.)  These 
words  are  spoken  to  Brvnhild  after  she  has  discovered  what  she 
regards  as  Sigtuxl's  treachery.  His  words  are  dictated  by  a 
noble  resignation  to  fate,  but  his  very  next  remark  shows  a  moral 
meanness  not  at  all  in  keeping  with  Morris's  conception.  Sigurd 
said  :  "  This  ui}-  heart  would,  that  thou  and  I  shoidd  go  into  one 
bed  together;  even  so  wovddst  thou  be  my  wife." 

There  have  been  many  griefs  depicted  in  this  poem,  but  surel}' 
here  are  set  forth  the  most  pitiless  of  them  all.  The  guile- won 
Brynhild  travels  in  state  to  the  Cloudy  Hall  of  the  Niblungs,  and 
the  whole  people  come  out  to  meet  her.  They  are  astonished  at 
her  beauty,  and  give  her  cordial  greeting  and  welcome  to  her 
husband's  house.  Proud  and  majestic,  the  marvelous  woman 
steps  from  her  golden  wain,  and  gives  friendly  but  passionless 
greeting  to  Gunnar  as  she  places  her  hand  in  his.  For  each  of 
Gunnar's  brothers  she  has  a  kindly  word,  as  she  has  for  Grim- 
hild,  too.  She  asks  to  see  the  foster-brother  of  whom  such  won- 
drous tales  are  told,  and  whose  name  she  heard  from  Gunnar's 
lips  with  never  a  tremor — "  Sigurd,  the  Volsung,  the  best  man 
ever  born."     Grimhild  stands  between    them  for  a  time,  but  the 


i 


65 

meeting  has  to  come.  Then  Br\  iihild  remembers,  and  Sigurd 
sees  the  unveiled  past : 

Her  heart  ran  back  through  the  years,  and  yet  her  hps  did  move 
With  the  words  she  spake  on  Hindfell,  when  they  phghted  troth  of  love. 

His  face  is  exceeding  glorious  and  awful  to  behold  ; 

For  of  all  his  sorrow  he  knoweth  and  his  hope  smit  dead  and  cold : 

For  the  will  of  the  Norns  is  accomplished,  and  outworn  is  Grimhild's 

spell 
And  nought  now  shall  blind  or  help  him,  and  the  tale  shall  be  to  tell. 

(P.  226.) 

There's  the  note  of  the  whole  history — the  will  of  the  Xorns 
and  the  note  of  a  whole  Northern  literature,  as  it  is  of  a  whole 
Southern  literature.  Man,  the  puppet,  in  the  hands  of  Fate; 
however  man  may  tliink  and  reason  and  assure  himself  that  the 
dispensation  of  Fate  is  just,  the  supreme  moment  of  realization 
will  always  be  a  tragedy  : 

He  hath  seen  the  face  of  Brynhild,  and  he  knows  why  she  hath  come. 
And  that  his  is  the  hand  that  hath  drawn  her  to  the  Cloudy  People's 

home  : 
He  knows  of  the  net  of  the  days,  and  the  deeds  that  the  Gods  have  bid, 
And  no  whit  of  the  sorrow  that  shall  be  from  his  wakened  soul  is  hid. 

(P.  226.) 

In  such  an  hour,  what  are  conquests  of  a  glorious  past,  what 
are  honors,  crowns,  lo\es,  hates  .^  The  mind  can  think  of  little 
matters  only  : 

His  heart  speeds  back  to  Hindfell,  and  the  dawn  of  the  wakening  day  ; 
And  the  hours  betwixt  are  as  nothing,  and  their  deeds  are  fallen  away. 

(P.  226.) 

Is  ausfht  to  be  said  to  one  in  such  a  crisis,  the  words  are  weak 
and  commonplace.     There  is  Brynhild's  greeting  to  Sigurd  : 

If  aught  thy  soul  shall  desire  while  yet  thou  livest  on  earth, 
I  pray  that  thou  mayst  win  it,  nor  forget  its  might  and  worth. 

The  shattered  mind  of  Sigurd  tries  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  the 
harmless  words,  antl  like  common  sounds  that  are  so  fearful  in 
the  night,  the  phrases  assume  a  terrible  import : 

All  grief,  sharp  scorn,  sore  longing,  stark  death  in  her  voice  he  knew. 


1^ 


66 

Then  asfaiii  comes  the  dominant  note  of  this  story  : 

Gone  forth  is  the  doom  of  the  Norns,   and  what   shall   be   answer 
thereto, 
While  the  death  that  amendeth  lingers  ? 

Here  is  a  hint  of  the  end  of  all — "  tlie  death  that  amendeth,"  and 
from  this  point  to  the  end  of  the  story  there  is  no  gleam  of  hap- 
piness for  anyone. 

Book  IV  brings  to  a  majestic  close  this  mighty  history.  We 
have  dweh  so  long  on  the  wonderful  poetry  of  the  other  books 
that  we  must  refrain  from  further  comment  in  this  strain.  As 
we  read  these  eloquent  imaginings,  we  regret  that  the  English 
reading  public  have  left  this  work  through  fear  of  its  great  length 
or  the  ignorance  of  its  existence,  in  the  dust  of  half-forgotten 
shelves.  Gold  disused  is  true  gold  none  the  less,  and  the  ages  to 
come  may  be  more  appreciative  than  the  present. 

For  the  sake  of  rounding  out  this  story,  be  it  noted  concerning 
this  Book  IV,  that  the  poet  has  taken  liberties  with  the  saga 
story  here,  as  elsewhere.  Motives  more  easily  understood  in  our 
day  are  assigned  for  the  deeds  of  dread  that  throng  these  closing 
scenes.  Gudrun  weds  King  Atli  at  her  mother's  bidding,  and 
under  the  influence  of  a  wicked  potion,  but  neither  mother  nor 
magic  drives  the  memory  of  Sigurd  from  her  mind.  She  lives  to 
bring  destruction  upon  her  husband's  murderers,  and  those  mur- 
derers are  her  own  flesh  and  blood.  Through  her  appeals  to 
Atli's  greed,  and  through  Knefrud's  lies  in  the  Niblung  court, 
the  visit  of  her  proud  brothers  to  her  pliant  husband  is  brought 
about.  The  saga  makes  Atli  the  arch-plotter,  and  the  motive  his 
desire  to  possess  the  gold.  This  sentence  exculpates  Gudrun 
from  any  wrong  intention  towards  her  brothers:  "Now  the 
queen  wots  of  their  conspiring,  and  misdoubts  her  that  this 
would  mean  some  beguiling  of  her  brethren."  (Chap.  XXXIV.) 
In  Chap.  XXXVIII,  we  are  told  that  Gudrun  fights  on  the  side 
of  her  brothers.  We  see  at  once  the  superiority  of  the  poet's 
motive  for  a  modern  tragedv. 

It  is  impressed  upon  the  reader  of  an  epic  that  the  plan  of  its 
maker  does  not  call  for  fine  analysis  of  character.  The  epic 
poet  is  concerned  necessarily  with  large  considerations,  and  his 
personages  do  not  split  hairs  from  the  south  to  the  southeast  side. 
One  sign  of  this  is  seen  in  the  epic  formulae  employed  to  charac- 


67 

terize  the  personalises  of  the  stor\ .  Such  tormuUe  are  in  Sigurd 
the  Ko/j-MW^  in  ahuiulance,  as  we  have  noted  on  an(jther  page. 
But  there  are  also  many  departures  from  the  epic  model  in  this 
poem.  Some  of  these  we  have  referred  to  in  the  remarks  on 
Book  III,  where  we  noted  Sigurd's  mental  sufferings.  In  Book 
IV  we  have  a  discrimination  of  character  that  is  not  epic,  but 
dramatic  in  its  minuteness.  In  the  speech  and  the  deeds  of  the 
Niblungs  their  pride  and  selfishness  is  clearlv  set  forth,  but  the 
individual  members  of  that  race  are  distinguished  bv  traits  verv 
minutely  drawn.  Tluis  Ilogni  is  the  warv  Xiblung,  and  is 
averse  to  accepting  Atli's  invitation  : 

"  I  know  not,  I  know  not,"   said  Hogni,    "but  an  unsure  bridge  is  the 

sea. 
And  such  would  I  oft  were  builded  betwixt  my  foeman  and  me. 
I  know  a  sorrow  that  sleepeth,  and  a  wakened  grief  I  know, 
And  the  torment  of  the  mighty  is  a  strong  and  fearful  foe." 

(P.  281.) 

Gunnar  is  here  distinguished  as  a  h\pocrite  by  \vord  and  deed; 
Gudrun  i-emembers  Sigurd  in  her  exile  and  schemes  and  plots  to 
make  her  husband  Atli  work  her  vengeance  on  the  Niblungs ; 
Atli  is  greedy  for  gold  and  ( jndrun's  task  is  not  haril :  Knefrud 
is  a  liar  whose  words  are  winning,  and  overcome  the  scruples  of 
the  Niblungs.  In  these  carefid  discriminations  of  character  we 
see  a  non-epical  trait,  and  of  necessity  therefore,  a  non-Icelandic 
trait.     The  sagaman  was  epic  in  his  tone. 

As  a  last  appreciation  of  the  art  of  William  Morris  as  it  is 
displayed  in  this  poem,  we  would  call  attention  to  the  tremendous 
battle-piece  entitled  "  Of  the  Battle  in  Atli's  Hall."  It  is  the 
climax  of  this  marvelous  poem,  and  in  no  detail  is  it  inadec[uate 
to  its  place  in  the  work.  The  poet's  constrnctive  power  is  here 
demonstrated  to  be  of  tlie  highest  order,  and  in  the  majestic 
sweep  of  events  that  is  here  depicted,  we  see  the  poet  in  his 
original  role  of  maker.  The  sagaman's  skill  had  not  the  power 
to  conceive  this  titanic  drama,  and  the  memory  of  his  battle- 
piece  is  quite  effaced  by  the  modern  iiuention.  In  blood  and  hre 
the  story  comes  to  an  end  with  Gutlnm, 

The  white  and  silent  woman  above  the  slaughter  set. 
As  we  turn  fnjm  the   scene  and  the  book,  that  figure  fades  not 


68 

away.  And  it  is  fitting  that  the  last  memory  of  this  poem 
should  be  a  picture  of  loye  and  hate,  inextricably  bound  together, 
for  that  is  the  irony  of  Fate,  and  Fate  was  mistress  of  the  Old 
Norseman's  world. 

5- 

Between  the  great  works  dealt  with  in  the  last  two  sections, 
which  belong  together  and  were  therefore  so  considered,  came 
the  book  of  1S75,  bearing  the  title  Three  Northern  Love  Stories 
and  Other  1  ales.  It  is  as  good  a  representation  as  Iceland  can 
make  in  the  loye-story  class. 

These  tales  are  charmingly  told  in  the  translation  of  Morris 
and  Magnusson,  the  second  one,  "Fiithiof  the  Bold,"  being  a 
master-piece  in  its  kind.  Men  will  dare  much  for  the  loye  of  a 
woman,  and  that  is  why  the  sagaman  records  loye  episodes  at 
all.  Frithiof's  yoyage  to  the  Orkneys  in  Chap.  VI  is  a  storm - 
piece  that  yies  with  anything  of  its  kind  in  modern  literature. 
It  is  Norse  to  the  core,  and  we  loye  the  peerless  young  hero  who 
forgets  not  his  manhood  in  his  chagrin  of  defeat  at  loye.  Surely 
there  is  fitness  in  these  outbursts  of  song  in  moments  of  extreme 
exultation  or  despair  !      "  And  he  sang  withal  : 

"  Helgi  it  is  that  helpeth 

The  white-head  billows'  waxing  ; 

Cold  time  unlike  the  kissing 

In  the  close  of  Baldur's  Meadow  ! 

So  is  the  hate  of  Helgi 

To  that  heart's  love  she  giveth. 

O  would  that  here  I  held  her, 

Gift  high  above  all  giving  I  " 

Modern  literature  has  lost  this  conventionalitv  of  the  older  writ- 
ings, found  in  Hebrew  as  well  as  in  Icelandic,  and  we  think  it 
has  lost  something  yaluable.  Morris  thought  so,  too,  for  he  re- 
stored the  interpolated  song-snatches  in  his  Romances.  We  are 
tempted  to  dwell  on  these  three  loye-stories,  they  are  so  fine ;  but 
we  must  leaye  them  with  the  remark  that  they  show  the  poet's 
appreciation  of  the  worth  of  a  foreign  literatiu-e,  and  his  great 
desire  to  haye  his  countrymen  share  in  his  admiration  for  them. 
*'The  Stor}-  of  Gunnlaug  the  Worm-Tongue  and  Raven  the 
Skald,"  and  "  The  Story  of  Viglund  the  Fair,"  are  the  other  two 
stories  that  give  the  title  to  the  volume,  representing  the  thirteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  as  "  Frithiof  "  represented  the  fourteenth. 


i 


69 

6. 

With  Sigurd  the  Volsiuig  ended  the  first  great  IcehiiuHc  jjc- 
riod  of  Morris's  work.  More  than  a  dozen  \ears  passed  before 
he  returned  to  the  field,  and  from  1SS9  until  his  death,  in  1896, 
everything  he  wrote  bore  proofs  of  his  abiding  interest  in  and 
affection  for  the  ancient  literature.  The  remarkable  series  of 
romances,  The  Hotise  of  tJie  Wolfings  (1SS9),  The  Roots  of  the 
Alountains  (1890),  The  Story  of  the  Glitteritig  Plain  (1891), 
The  Wood  Beyotid  the  f^For/t/ (1895),  ^'^^^  Weil  at  the  World's 
End  (1896)  and  The  Sundering  Flood  (posthumous),  are  none 
of  them  distinctively  Old  Norse  in  geographv  or  in  storv,  liut 
they  all  have  the  flavor  of  the  saga-translations,  and  are  all  the 
better  for  it.  They  are  as  original  and  as  beautiful  as  the  poet's 
tapestries  and  furniture,  and  if  thev  did  not  provoke  imitation  as 
did  the  tapestries  and  furniture,  it  was  not  because  the\  were  not 
worth  imitating:  more  than  likeh  there  were  no  imitators  ecjual 
to  the  task.  In  these  romances  we  liave  men  and  women  with 
the  characteristics  of  an  olden  time  that  are  most  wortln  of  con- 
servation in  the  present  time.  The  ideals  of  womanfolk  and 
manfolk  in  The  House  of  the  Wolf  tigs  and  The  Roots  of  the 
Mountains^  for  instance,  are  such  as  an  Englishman  might  well 
be  proud  to  have  in  his  remote  ancestry.  Hall-Sun,  Wood- 
Sun,  Sunbeam,  and  Bowmav  are  \vholesome  women  to  meet 
in  a  storv,  and  Thiodolf,  Gold-mane,  Iron-face  and  Ibillward 
are  every  inch  men  for  Itook-use  or  to  commune  witli  everv 
day.  Weaklings,  too,  abide  in  these  stories,  and  Penny-tliumb 
and  Rustv  and  Fiddle  and  Wood-gre\-  lend  Inim.iiiity  to  \\\v  com- 
pany. 

The  two  romances  last  mentioned  are  so  steeped  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  sagas,  that  what  with  folk-motes  and  shut-lieds.  and 
byres,  and  man-quellers,  and  handsels  and  speech-friends,  we 
seem  to  lose  ourselves  in  vet  another  version  of  a  northern  tale. 
Morris  retains  the  old  idiom  that  he  invented  tor  his  translations, 
and  keeps  the  t\  ro  thumbing  his  dictionary,  but  the  charm  is  in- 
creased bv  the  archaisms.  As  one  seeks  the  words  in  tlie  dic- 
tionary, one  learns  that  Chaucer,  Spenser  and  the  Ballads  were 
the  wells  from  which  he  drew  these  rare  \vords,  anil  that  liis  em- 
ployment of  them  is  only  another  phase  of  his  love  for  the  oUl 
far-off  things.      It  is  true   that  the   language  of  Morris  is  not  of 


70 

any  one  stadium  of  English,  but  it  is  a  poet's  privilege  to  draw 
upon  all  history  for  his  words  as  well  as  for  his  allusions,  and  the 
revivals  in  question  are  of  worthy  words  pushed  aside  by  the  press 
of  newer,  but  not  necessarily  better  forms. 

These  works  are  the  kind  that  show  the  influence  of  Old  Norse 
literature  as  spiritual  rather  than  substantial.  The  stories  are  not 
drawn  from  the  older  literature,  nor  are  the  settings  patterned 
after  it ;  but  the  impulses  that  swayed  men  and  women  in  the 
sagaman's  tale,  and  the  motives  that  uplifted  them,  are  found 
here.  We  cannot  think  that  the  English  people  \vill  always  be 
vinmindful  of  the  great  debt  that  they  owe  to  the  Muse  of  the 
North, 

7- 

In  1S91,  Alorris  engaged  in  a  literary  enterprise  that  set  the 
fashion  for  similar  enterprises  in  succeeding  years.  With  Eirikr 
Magnusson  he  undertook  the  making  of  The  Saga  Library^ 
"  addressed  to  the  whole  reading  public,  and  not  only  to  students 
of  Scandinavian  history,  folk-lore  and  language."  ^  With  Ber- 
nard Qiiaritch's  imprint  on  the  title  pages,  these  volumes  to  the 
number  of  five  were  issued  in  exceptional  type  and  form.  The 
munificence  of  the  publisher  was  equalled  by  the  skill  of  the 
translators,  and  in  their  versions  of  '•  Howard,  the  Halt,"  "  The 
Banded  Men,"  and"  Hen  Thorir  "  (in  Vol.  I,  dated  1891), 
"  The  Ere-Dwellers  "  (in  Vol.  II,  dated  1S92)  and  Heimskrittgla 
(in  Vols.  Ill,  IV  and  V,  dated  1S93-4-5),  the  definitive  transla- 
tions of  sterling  sagas  were  given.  As  was  the  case  with  their 
Grettis  Saga^  the  works  rise  to  the  dignity  of  masterpieces,  and 
had  we  no  other  legacy  from  Morris'  wealth  of  Icelandic  schol- 
arship, these  translations  were  precious  enough  to  keep  us  grate- 
ful through  many  generations. 

8. 
One  more  contribution  to  English  literature  hailing  from  the 
North,  and  we  have  done  with  William  Morris's  splendid  gifts. 
The  volume  of  1S91,  entitled  Poems  by  the  Way^  contains  sev- 
eral pieces  that  must  be  reckoned  with.  The  vividest  recollec- 
tions of  Icelandic  materials  here  made  use  of  are  the  poems 
"  Iceland  First  Seen,"  and  "  To  the  Muses  of  the  North."     No 

'  Preface  to  Vol.  I,  p.  v. 


reader  of  tlie  p(jet's  ])i(j<jraphv  can  forget  the  remarkable  jour- 
ney that  Alorris  made  through  Iceland,  nor  how  he  prepared 
for  that  journey  with  all  the  care  and  love  of  a  pilgrim  bound 
for  a  shrine  of  his  deepest  devotion.  Everv  foot  of  ground  was 
visited  that  had  been  hallowed  bv  the  noble  souls  and  inspiring 
deeds  of  the  past,  and  that  pilgrimage  warmed  him  to  loving 
literary  creation  through  the  remainder  of  his  life.  The  last  two 
stanzas  of  the  first  of  the  poems  just  mentioned  show  what  a 
strong  hold  the  forsaken  island  had  upon  his  affections,  and  go 
far  to  explain  the  success  of  his  Icelandic  work  : 

O  Queen  of  the  grief  without  knowledge, 

of  the  courage  that  may  not  avail, 

Of  the  longiriE:  that  may  not  attain, 

of  the  love  that  shall  never  forget, 

More  joy  than  the  gladness  of  laughter 

thy  voice  hath  amidst  of  its  wail  : 

More  hope  than  of  pleasure  fulfilled 

amidst  of  thy  blindness  is  set ; 

More  glorious  than  gaining  of  all 

thine  unfaltering  hand  that  shall  fail  : 

For  what  is  the  mark  on  thy  brow 

but  the  brand  that  thy  Brynhild  doth  bear  ? 

Lone  once,  and  loved  and  undone 

by  a  love  that  no  ages  outwear. 

Ah  !  when  thy  Balder  comes  back, 
and  bears  from  the  heart  of  the  Sun 
,  Peace  and  the  healing  of  pain, 

and  the  wisdom  that  waiteth  no  more  ; 

And  the  lilies  are  laid  on  thy  brow 

'mid  the  crown  of  the  deeds  thou  hast  done  ; 

And  the  roses  spring  up  by  thy  feet 

that  the  rocks  of  the  wilderness  wore. 

Ah  !  when  thy  Balder  comes  back 

and  we  gather  the  gains  he  hath  won, 

Shall  we  not  linger  a  little 

to  talk  of  thy  sweetness  of  old, 

Yea,  turn  back  awhile  to  thy  travail 

whence  the  Gods  stood  aloof  to  behold  ? 

In  several  other  poems  in  this  volume  he  recurs  to  the  practice 
of  his  romances,  Scandinaviaiiizes  where   the   tendency  of  other 


72 

poets  would  be  to  mediae valize.  "  Of  the  Wooing  of  Hallbiorn 
the  Strong,"  and  "  The  Raven  and  the  King's  Daughter "  are 
examples.  Here  we  have  ballads  like  those  that  Coleridge  and 
Keats  conceived  on  occasion,  full  of  the  beauty  that  lends  itself 
so  kindly  to  painted-glass  decoration ;  clustered  spear-shafts, 
crested  helms  and  curling  banners,  and  everywhere  lily  hands 
combing  yellow  hair  or  broidering  silken  standards.  But  the 
names  strike  a  strange  note  in  these  songs  of  Morris,  and  the  ac- 
companiments are  very  different  from  the  mediaeval  kind  : 

Come  ye  carles  of  the  south  country, 
Now  shall  we  go  our  kin  to  see  ! 
For  the  lambs  are  bleating  in  the  south, 
And  the  salmon  swims  towards  Olfus  mouth. 
Girth  and  graithe  and  gather  your  gear  ! 
And  ho  for  the  other  Whitewater  !  ' 

The  introduction  of  the  homely  arts  of  bread-winning  dis- 
tinsfuishes  the  romance  of  Scandinavia  from  the  romance  of 
Southern  Europe,  and  here  Morris  struck  into  a  new  field  for 
poetry.  Wherever  we  turn  to  note  the  effects  of  Icelandic  tra- 
dition, we  find  this  presence  of  daily  toil,  always  associated  with 
dignity,  never  apologized  for.  The  connection  between  Morris' 
art  and  Morris'  socialism  is  not  hard  to  explain. 

No  commentary  can  equal  Morris*  own  poem,  "  To  the  Muse 
of  the  North,"  in  setting  forth  the  charm  that  drew  him  to  the 
literature  of  Iceland  : 

O  Muse  that  swayest  the  sad  Northern  Song, 

Thy  right  hand  full  of  smiting  and  of  wrong, 

Thy  left  hand  holding  pity  ;  and  thy  breast 

Heaving  with  hope  of  that  so  certain  rest  : 

Thou,  with  the  grey  eyes  kind  and  unafraid. 

The  soft  lips  trembling  not,  though  they  have  said 

The  doom  of  the  World  and  those  that  dwell  therein. 

The  lips  that  smile  not  though  thy  children  win 

The  fated  Love  that  draws  the  fated  Death. 

O,  borne  adown  the  fresh  stream  of  thy  breath, 

Let  some  word  reach  my  ears  and  touch  my  heart, 

That,  if  it  may  be,  I  may  have  a  part 

In  that  great  sorrow  of  thy  children  dead 

That  vexed  the  brow,  and  bowed  adown  the  head, 

1  The  Wooing  of  Hallbiorn. 


73 


Whitened  the  hair,  made  life  a  wondrous  dream, 

And  death  the  murmur  of  a  restful  stream, 

Rut  left  no  stain  upon  those  souls  of  thine 

Whose  greatness  through  the  tangled  world  doth  shine. 

O  Mother,  and  Love  and  Sister  all  in  one. 

Come  thou  ;  for  sure  I  am  enough  alone 

That  thou  thine  arms  about  my  heart  shouldst  throw. 

And  wrap  me  in  the  grief  of  long  ago. 


IV. 

IN    THE    LATTER    DAYS. 

Echoes  of  Iceland  in  Later  Poets. 

After  William  Morris  the  northern  strain  that  we  have  been 
listening  for  in  the  English  poets  seems  feeble  and  not  worth 
noting.  Nevertheless,  it  must  be  remarked  that  in  the  harp  of  a 
thousand  strings  that  wakes  to  music  under  the  bard's  hands, 
there  is  a  sweep  which  thrills  to  the  ancient  traditions  of  the 
Northland.  No\v  and  then  the  poet  reaches  for  these  strings, 
and  gladdens  us  with  some  reminiscence  of 

old,  unhappy,  far-off  things 
And  battles  long  ago. 

As  had  already  been  intimated,  the  table  of  contents  in  a  present- 
dav  volume  of  poetrv  is  very  apt  to  show  an  Old  Norse  title. 
Thus  Robert  Lord  Lytton's  Poems  Historical  and  Character- 
istic (London,  1S77)  reveals  among  the  poems  on  European, 
Oriental,  classic  and  mediaeval  subjects,  "The  Death  of  Earl 
Hacon,"  a  strong  piece  inspired  by  an  incident  in  Hcimskri^igia . 
In  Robert  Buchanan's  multifarious  versifying  occurs  this  title  : 
"  Balder  the  Beautiful,  A  Song  of  Divine  Death,"  but  only  the 
title  is  Old  Norse ;  nothing  in  the  poem  suggests  that  origin  ex- 
cept a  notion  or  two  of  the  end  of  all  things.  "  Hakon  "  is  the 
title  of  a  short  virile  piece  more  nearly  of  the  Morse  spirit. 
Sidnev  Dobell's  drama  Balder  has  only  the  title  to  suggest  the 
Icelandic,  but  Gerald  Massev  has  'the  true  ring  in  a  number  of 
Ivrics,  with  themes  drawn  from  the  records  of  Norway's  relations 
with  England.  In  "The  Norseman"  there  is  a  trumpet  strain 
that  recalls  the  best  of  the  border-ballads  ;  there  is  also  a  truthful- 
ness of  portraiture  that  argues  a  poet's  intuition  in  Gerald  Mas- 
sev, if  not  an  acquaintance  with  the  sagas  : 

The  Norseman's  King  must  stand  up  tall. 
If  he  would  be  head  over  all  ; 
Mainmast  of  Battle  !  when  the  plain 
Is  miry-red  with  bloody  rain  ! 
74 


And  grip  his  weapon  for  the  fight, 
Until  his  knuckles  grin  tooth-white, 
The  banner-staft'  he  bears  is  best 
If  double  handful  for  the  rest  : 

When  "  follow  me  "  cries  the  Norseman. 

He  knows  the  gentler  side  of  Old  Norse  character,  too,  a  side 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  not  suspected  till  Carlyle  came  : 

He  hides  at  heart  of  his  rough  life, 
A  world  of  sweetness  for  the  Wife  ; 
From  his  rude  breast  a  Babe  may  press 
Soft  milk  of  human  tenderness, — 
Make  his  eyes  water,  his  heart  dance, 
And  sunrise  in  his  countenance  : 
In  merriest  mood  his  ale  he  quaffs 
By  firelight,  and  with  jolly  heart  laughs 
The  blithe,  great-hearted  Norseman. 

The  poem  "  Old  King  Hake,"  is  as  strikingly  true  in  char- 
acterization as  the  preceding.  In  half  a  dozen  strophes  Massey 
has  told  a  whole  saga,  and  has  found  time,  too,  to  describe  "an 
iron  hero  of  Norse  mould."  How  miserable  a  personage  is  the 
Italian  that  flits  through  I^nnvning's  pages  when  contrasted  with 

this  hero  : 

When  angry,  out  the  blood  would  start 

With  old  Kiiig  Hake  ; 
Not  sneak  in  dark  caves  of  the  heart. 

Where  curls  the  snake, 
And  secret  Murder's  hiss  is  heard 

Ere  the  deed  be  done  : 
He  wove  no  web  of  wile  and  word  ;  • 

He  bore  with  none. 
When  sharp  within  its  sheath  asleep 

Lay  his  good  sword. 
He  held  it  royal  work  to  keep 

His  kingly  word. 
A  man  of  valour,  bloody  and  wild. 

In  Viking  need  ; 
And  yet  of  firelight  feeling  mild 

As  honey-mead. 

Another  poem,  "The  Banner-Bearer  of  King  Olaf,"  pictures 
the   strone   fiehter  in   a    death    he    rejoiced  to  die.     It  is  a  good 


76 

poem  of  the  class  that  nerves  men  to  die  for  the  flag,  and  it  has 
the  Old  Norse  spirit.  These  poems  are  all  from  Massey's  volume 
My  Lyj-ical  Life  (London.    1SS9). 

A  glance  at  the  other  poems  in  Gerald  Massey's  volumes  shows 
that  like  Morris,  and  like  Kingsley,  and  like  Carlyle,  the  poet 
was  a  workman  eager  to  do  for  the  workman.  Is  it  not  sugges- 
tive that  these  men  found  themselves  drawn  to  Old  Norse  char- 
acter and  life  ?  The  Icelandic  republic  cherished  character  as 
the  highest  quality  of  citizenship,  and  put  few  or  no  social  ob- 
stacles in  the  way  of  its  achievement.  The  literature  inspired  bv 
that  life  reveals  a  fellowship  among  the  members  of  that  republic 
that  is  the  envv  of  social  reformers  of  the  present  da  v.  IMorris 
makes  one  of  the  personages  in  T/ie  Story  of  the  Glittering 
Plain  (Chap.  I)  say  these  words  :  "And  as  for  Lord,  I  knew 
not  this  word,  for  here  dwell  we  the  Sons  of  the  Raven  in 
good  fellowship,  with  our  wives  that  we  have  wedded,  and 
our  mothers  who  have  borne  us,  and  our  sisters  who  serve  us." 
Almost  mav  this  description  serve  for  Iceland  in  its  golden  age, 
and  so  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  socialist,  the  j^riest,  and  the 
philosopher  of  our  own  disjointed  times  go  back  to  the  sagas  for 
ideals  to  serve  their  countrymen. 

We  have  no  other  poets  to  mention  by  name  in  connection 
with  this  Old  Norse  influence,  although  doubtless  a  search 
through  the  countless  volumes  that  the  presses  drop  into  a  cold 
and  uncaring  world  would  reveal  other  poems  with  Scandinavian 
themes.  We  close  this  section  of  our  investigation  with  the  re- 
mark already  made,  that,  in  the  tables  of  titles  in  volumes  of 
contemporary  verse,-  acknowledgment  to  Old  Norse  poetrv  and 
prose  are  not  the  rarity  they  once  were,  and  in  poems  of  any 
kind  allusions  to  the  same  sources  are  verv  common. 

Recent  Translations. 
We  have  already  noted  the  beginning  of  serial  publications  of 
saga  translations,  namely,  Morris  andMagnusson's  Saga  Library 
which  was  stopped  by  the  death  of  Morris  when  the  fifth  volume 
had  been  completed.  By  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury Icelandic  had  become  one  of  the  langviages  that  an  ordinarv 
scholar  might  boast,  and  in  consequence  the  list  of  translations 
began  to   lengthen  very  fast.      Several  English  publishers  with 


/Cft-vt-K-Mtc^fiX^  V  . ,  :^     .^^    jixH' f- 


U 


scholarly  instincts  were  attracted  to  this  Held,  and  so  the  readinj<- 
public  may  get  at  the  sagas  that  were  so  long  the  exclusive  pos- 
session of  learned  professors.  The  N^orthern  Library^  pul)- 
lished  by  David  Nutt,  of  London,  already  contains  four  volumes 
and  more  are  promised  :  The  Saga  of  Kittg  Olaf  Trygg-Mason^ 
by  J.  Sephton,  appeared  in  1895  :  The  Tale  of  Thro7id  of  Gate 
{Tcereymga  .Srt-^rt^),  by  F.  York  Powell,  in  1S96;  Hamlet  in 
Iceland  {Ambales  Saga),  Iw  Israel  Gollancz,  in  1898;  The 
Saga  of  King  Sverri  of  N'orway  {Sverris  Saga),  Ijy  J.  Seph- 
ton, in  1899.  If  we  cannot  give  to  these  the  praise  of  being 
great  literature  though  translations,  we  can  at  least  foresee  that 
this  process  of  turning  all  the  readable  sagas  into  English  will 
quicken  adaptations  and  increase  the  stock  of  allu^ionv  in  modern 
writings. 

An  example  of  the  publishers'  feeling  that  the  readmg  puldic 
will  find  an  interest  in  the  saga  itself,  is  the  translation  of  Laxdivla 
Saga  by  Muriel  A.  C.  Press  (London,  1S99,  J-  ^L  Dent  iK: 
Co.).  William  Morris  made  this  saga  known  to  readers  (;f  Eng- 
lish poetry  Iw  his  magnificent  "  Lo\ers  of  Gudrun."  Mrs.  Press 
lets  us  see  the  story  in  its  original  form.  Perhaps  this  transhi- 
tion  will  appeal  as  widely  as  an\  to  tliose  who  read,  and  we  ma\ 
note  the  differences  between  this  form  of  writing  and  that  to 
which  the  modern  times  are  accustomed. 

This  saga  is  a  story,  but  it  is  not  like  the  \\-ork  of  fiction,  nor 
like  the  sketch  of  history  which  appeals  to  our  interest  to-dav. 
It  has  not  the  unity  of  purpose  which  marks  the  no\el,  nor  the 
broad  outlook  over  events  which  characterizes  the  historv.  Plot- 
ting is  abvmdant,  but  plot  in  the  technical  sense  there  is  none. 
Events  are  recorded  in  chronological  order,  but  there  is  no  march 
of  those  events  to  a  denoue7ne)tt.  \\'hile  it  would  be  wrong  to 
say  that  there  is  no  one  hero  in  a  saga,  it  would  he  more  correct 
to  say  that  that  hero's  name  is  legion.  From  generation  to  gen- 
eration a  saga-historv  wends  its  way,  each  period  dominated  by 
a  great  hero.  The  annals  cjf  a  family  edited  for  purposes  of  oral 
recitation,  or  the  life  of  the  principal  niemlier  of  that  family 
with  an  introduction  dealing  with  the  great  deeds  of  as  many  of 
his  ancestors  as  he  would  be  proud  to  own — this  seems  t(«  be 
what  a  saga  was — Laxdccla,  Grettla,  Njala. 

This    form    permits    man\    sterling    literary   qualities.      Movc- 


R. 


78 

ment  is  the  most  marked  characteristic.  This  was  essential  to  a 
spoken  story,  and  the  sharpest  impression  left  in  the  mind  of  an 
Enoflish  reader  is  that  of  relentless  activity.  Thus  he  finds  it 
necessary  to  keep  the  bearings  of  the  story  by  consulting  the  list 
of  dramatis  personce  and  the  map,  both  indispensable  accom- 
paniments of  a  saga-translation.  The  chapter  headings  make 
this  list,  and  a  glance  at  them  for  Laxdcvla  reveals  a  procession 
of  notable  personages — Ketill,  Unn,  Hoskuld,  Olaf  the  Peacock, 
Kiartan,  Gudrun,  Bolli,  Thorgills,  Thorkell,  Thorleik,  Bolli 
BoUison  and  Snorri.  Each  of  these  is,  in  turn,  the  center  of 
action,  and  only  Gudrun  keeps  prominent  for  any  length  of  time. 

Character-portraiture,  ever  a  remarkable  achievement  in  litera- 
ture, is  excellently  done  in  the  sagas.  There  was  a  necessity  for 
this  ;  so  many  personages  crowded  the  stage  that,  if  they  were 
not  to  be  mere  puppets,  they  would  have  to  be  carefully  discrim- 
inated.     That  they  were  so  a  perusal  of  any  saga  will  prove. 

In  a  novel  love  is  almost  indispensable  ;  in  a  saga  other  forces 
are  the  impelling  motives.  Love-making  gets  the  novelist's  ten- 
derest  interest  and  solicitude,  but  it  receives  little  attention  from 
the  saeaman.  Wooing  under  the  Arctic  Circle  was  a  methodi- 
j^  cal  bargaining,  and  there  was  little  room  for  sentiment.  When 
Thorvald  asked  for  Osvif's  daughter  Gudrun,  the  father  "said 
that  against  the  match  it  would  tell  that  he  and  Gudrun  were  not 
of  equal  standing.  Thorvald  spoke  gently  and  said  he  was  woo- 
ing a  wife,  not  money.  After  that  Gudrun  was  betrothed  to 
Thorvald.  .  .  .  He  should  also  bring  her  jewels,  so  that  no 
woman  of  equal  wealth  should  have  better  to  show.  .  .  .  Gud- 
run was  not  asked  about  it  and  took  it  much  to  heart,  vet  things 
went  on  quietly."  (Chap.  XXXIV  of  Laxdcvla.)  In  Iceland, 
as  elsewhere,  love  was  a  source  of  discord,  and  for  that  reason 
love  is  alwavs  present  in  the  saga.  It  is  not  the  tender  passion 
there,  silvered  with  moonlight  and  attended  bv  song.  The  saga 
is  a  man's  tale. 

The  translation  just  referred  to  is  in  The  Temple  Classics.,  pub- 
lished by  J.  M.  Dent  &  Co.,  London,  1S99,  and  edited  by  Israel 
Gollancz.  The  editor  promises  (p.  373)  other  sagas  in  this 
form,  if  Mrs.  Press's  work  prove  successful.  He  speaks  of 
Njala  and  Volsit7tga  as  imminent.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
intention  is  to  give  the  Dasent  and  the  Morris  versions,  for  they 
cannot  be  excelled. 


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